Xanadu Secures $100M in Series C

Photonic quantum computer company Xanadu has raised $100 million in series C financing. The round follows the company’s series B round, which Xanadu closed for $100 million last year.

Xanadu’s photonics-based approach to the development of quantum computers allows it to use modern chip manufacturing facilities, the application of existing optical components used in the telecommunications industry, and fiber optics to network its photonic chips.

In June, Xanadu reported that it had achieved quantum computational advantage using its Borealis photonic quantum computer. Borealis features 216 squeezed-state qubits. In a corresponding move announced at the time, Xanadu made the computer and its capabilities available to the public through its photonic quantum computing platform, Xanadu Cloud, as well as through Amazon Bracket.

According to the company, the advancement made Borealis the first photonic quantum computer offering full programmability of all its gates to demonstrate quantum computational advantage. It also marked the first time that a machine capable of quantum advantage was available to the public in the cloud.

In October 2022, Xanadu and the Volkswagen Group established a multiyear research program to improve the performance of quantum algorithms for simulating battery materials. The goal of the collaboration is to reduce computational costs and accelerate Volkswagen’s adoption of quantum computers to develop safer, lighter, and more cost-effective battery materials.

The company said it plans to use the series C funding to build a fault-tolerant and error-corrected quantum computer capable of scaling up to 1 million qubits, and, specifically, a first module validating its fault-tolerant quantum computing architecture.

Since its founding in 2016, Xanadu has raised $250 million. It is valued at $1 billion.