Quantum Computing Venture Fundable?
Notes for tech generalists
If a cat is either black or white, we receive online ads 80% of the chance we won’t click. If a cat is super-positioned with both possibilities, things just appeared in our minds become a click away, trading at home like a quant is matter of a button to push, and bitcoins may become worthless because the sacred key is no longer a needle in haystack but a pot of gold to be grabbed. We can all thank quantum computing for this foreseeable future, scary or enlightening.
However, just like many breakthroughs at the dawn of their time, quantum computing remains a field scarcely touched by venture capital, due to a modest market cap. The global enterprise quantum computing market garnered $650 million in 2017 and is expected to reach $5,853 million by 2025, registering a CAGR of 31.7% from 2018 to 2025, according to 2019 report by Allied Market Research .
By far, among segments in quantum computing, hardware leads in the revenues generation but service sectors grow the fastest, in which on-premise currently dominates but cloud is predicted to catch up by 2025, also according to this AMR report.
According to blog Superposition (“Herding Schrodinger’s Cats”), some notable startups receiving venture funding including:
D-Wave Systems: $174,679,703
Rigetti Computing: $69,450,000
Cambridge Quantum Computing Limited: $50,000,000
IonQ, Inc.: $20,000,000
Post-Quantum (PQ Solutions): $10,418,000
Xanadu: $2,500,000
Firebird: $65,000
The challenges for private funding entering quantum computing are well summarized in IEEE: Is it Time for Quantum Computing Startups? Maybe, a report from IBM’s Q Summit in2018, which took place in Menlo Park, CA.
Some highlights from the IEEE report:
“ There are really only 15 or 20 people in the world’ who will make or break quantum computing,” says Matt Johnson, CEO of QC Ware.
“Quantum computing was 10 years away 20 years ago and it still is,” states Vijay Pande, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, “ but its rate of evolution is hyper exponential, so suddenly, in some ‘n’ years, it will jump over the classic machine.”
“It’s hard to talk about the market if I don’t even know what the algorithms are,” obseres Bill Coughran, a Sequoia Capital partner.
To be noted, whether you believe quantum computing is venture fundable or not, your decision to participate in answering this questions itself creates interference to its outlook on funding, be it an error or a signal. #Happy entangling