QCI connects to $18m series A

Quantum Circuits (QCI), a US-based quantum components spinout from Yale University, received $18m in series A capital yesterday in a round featuring spinout-focused investment firm Osage University Partners.

VC firms Canaan Partners and Sequoia Capital co-led the round, which also included Tribeca Venture Partners and Fitz Gate Ventures, a VC fund targeting ventures originating from Princeton University.

Founded in 2015, QCI is developing more streamlined and efficient quantum components that it hopes will eventually power modular and general-purpose computers for sectors such as biotech and machine learning.

Quantum computing is set to offer faster processing speeds than the most powerful machines available at present, though the technology remains years away from entering the mass-market.

The capital will be used to recruit electrical, mechanical and systems engineers in addition to software designers and programmers. Brendan Dickinson of Canaan and Bill Coughran of Sequoia will join the QCI board.

The spinout was co-founded by three professors from Yale’s Department of Applied Physics ­– Michel Devoret, Luigi Frunzio and Robert Schoelkopf – with Brian Pusch, partner at legal firm Pusch and Gal, who is now QCI president.

QCI raised an undisclosed amount of funding from unnamed backers in March 2016, according to a securities filing. Deals database PitchBook named Fitz Gate Ventures as the investor.

Jon Soderstrom, managing director of Yale University’s tech transfer arm, Office of Cooperative Research, said: “QCI is a case study on the advantages of Yale’s long-term approach to supporting the work of our research faculty.

“We have worked closely with QCI’s scientific founders to position their research for commercial development outside the university, and are thrilled that this company joined the growing startup environment right here in New Haven.”