German start-up Quint raises €9.1 million for quantum chips with fewer errors

[VectorDB Cobra]

A young German quantum company has secured its first funding. The Quantum Insider, drawing on a Handelsblatt report, says Quint, a spin off from FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg founded just over a year ago, has raised €9.1 million to develop superconducting quantum chips that need fewer qubits for error correction

The round was led by Vsquared Ventures, with Quantonation, Nucleus Capital and IQM co-founder Mikko Möttönen also taking part. Quint has also won an EU award worth more than €2 million

The co-founders are Michael Hartmann, who previously worked with Google's quantum team, physicist Christopher Eichler and economist Jona Stinner. Their patented architecture links circuit design with electrical control so that fewer redundant qubits are needed for error correction, and they are targeting chemicals and pharmaceutical customers such as BASF and Bayer

Investor Ion Hauer called error correction the biggest cost driver in quantum computing today, but also noted that a patent is not yet a chip that works in large quantities. Handelsblatt describes it as one of the biggest early stage quantum rounds in Germany

Reducing the overhead of error correction is one of the most valuable goals in the field, because current approaches can need hundreds or thousands of physical qubits per logical one. Having IQM's co-founder on board is a strong vote of confidence. Turning a clever patent into working hardware is the hard part ahead

Can hardware design cut the cost of error correction? And is Germany becoming a leading quantum hub?

Germany's Quint Raises 9.1 Million Euros to Develop Quantum Chips With Fewer Errorsthequantuminsider.com