Vancouver-based 1QBit has closed a $45 million Series B that includes equity and revenue contracts.
The funding was led by Fujitsu Limited, with additional strategic investment by Accenture, Allianz, The Royal Bank of Scotland, and CME Ventures. In June 2017, 1QBit announced its strategic partnership with Fujitsu to develop AI applications for quantum computers.
“These strategic partners strengthen 1QBit’s position as a leader in applying classical and quantum computers to industry problems and expanding the breadth of our commercialization activities,” said Landon Downs, president of 1QBit.
1QBit is building hardware-agnostic quantum software, and partners with companies taking on computationally intensive problems in verticals like advanced materials, life sciences, energy, and finance. It assesses each partner’s industry problem, and develops an API that will produce the best available results at the time, while constantly improving based on new software and hardware architectures once they’re released.
“The 1QBit platform accelerates our client’s ability to leverage the most advanced quantum and classical processors available to solve their most complex business challenges, and gives them a hardware-agnostic solution that enables them to stay ahead of the computational curve,” said Paul Daugherty, Accenture’s chief technology and innovation officer. “1QBit and Accenture announced today that they have formed a strategic alliance which will help Accenture expand its analytics capabilities using quantum computing, and build a new era of intelligence for businesses and organizations.”