Silicon Quantum Computing Closes $50.4 million Series A, Falls Short of Initial $130 Million Goal

Insider Brief

• Silicon Quantum Computing reportedly closed a $50.4 million (AUS) in Series A.
• Last year, company executives said they were shooting for around $130 million.
• Investors include the Commonwealth Government, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), Telstra and the University of New South Wales.

Silicon Quantum Computing reportedly closed a $50.4 million in Series A, according to a company release.

The investors in this round include the Commonwealth Government and some of Australia’s most prominent institutions, including the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), Telstra and the University of New South Wales (UNSW).

According to the statement, the Series A round was priced at $1.75 per share, meaning that  SQC’s valuation is around $195.3 million, which more than doubles previous valuation of $82.8 million.

“SQC has a globally unique technology to manufacture processors with atomic precision, and this approach to building a quantum computer has many advantages over our multinational competitors,” said Michelle Simmons, CEO of SQC, said in the statement. “History has shown that emerging technology ecosystems cluster around organisations that manufacture. Backed by this funding and our team of incredibly talented physicists and engineers from around the world, SQC is well placed to become a central hardware manufacturing hub for the quantum computing industry, both in Australia and globally.”

The company received praise from investors and partners.

Kim Krogh Andersen, Group Executive Product & Technology at Telstra, said “We’re a big believer in the potential of quantum computing to transform industries and solve some of world’s problems that challenge us today. This potential and our belief in Michelle Simmons and the SQC team is why we’re a foundation investor and continue to support the innovative work they’re doing.”

Brendan Hopper, CBA Chief Information Officer for technology, said he is positive about SQC’s future business prospects.

“As an early stage Investor in SQC, we can see the economic and business opportunities that could be opened up through the development of a locally-based quantum computing sector by a recognized Australian leader in this field,” Hopper said in the statement. “The work being done by Professor Simmons and her team is of national and international significance and we are proud to be supporting the next phase of SQC’s growth.”

Below Last Year’s Goal

The raise is still just over a third of the $130 million the company was aiming at last year when they started the raise. But, it’s a number, according to the startup’s executive team, they can live with.

“We’ve raised just the right amount of capital to keep us going without having to give too much of the company away,” she told the AFR.

SQC Chair, Stephen Menzies, in terms of the overall size of SQC’s raise, said: “We are happy to achieve an up-round in such a tight funding environment. In periods where capital is expensive, we see it as advantageous to defer a bigger raise.”

The Australian Government released its National Quantum Strategy in May 2023, alongside the updated List of Critical Technologies in the National Interest, in which quantum technologies is a priority field.