Zapata executes $5.4m round

Zapata Computing, a US-based quantum computing software developer in stealth mode founded by Harvard University scientists, has received $5.4m in equity from undisclosed investors, according to a securities filing.

The filing indicates that Reed Sturtevant, partner at the Engine, the incubator and venture program launched by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is on Zapata’s board of directors, alongside Russ Wilcox, partner at venture capital firm Pillar.

Formed in 2017, Zapata is working on quantum computing algorithms for purposes such as chemistry, machine learning, security and error correction.

Zapata has joined IBM Q Network, a network of startups granted access to quantum computers owned by technology group IBM and potentially benefitting from tie-ups with the corporate’s researchers.

The processing power of quantum computers is expected to be far superior to current technology, but manufacturers have thus far struggled to scale the technology efficiently.

Zapata’s co-founders include Alán Aspuru-Guzik, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard who expects quantum computing and machine learning to enhance chemistry experiments. Aspuru-Guzik will move to University of Toronto this summer.

In a University of Toronto blog post announcing his appointment, Aspuru-Guzik said: “When you look at things like climate change, antibiotic-resistant bacteria or water pollution, we do not have time in the 21st century to make incremental improvements in the field of chemistry.

“So one of the things that I want to see is ‘self-driving’ chemical laboratories. With machine learning, we can use the data from one experiment to tell us what our next experiment should be.”

Aspuru-Guzik was helped by one of his PhD researchers, Yudong Cao, as well as Jonathan Olson, who had been on Aspuru-Guzik’s team until March 2018.

Zapata is helmed by chief executive Christopher Savoie, founder and former CEO of biopharmaceutical corporate GNI Group, which went public in 2007.