Vancouver-based Photonic has completed the final close of its latest funding round, securing another $70 million USD ($95 million CAD) that will fuel the development of its quantum computers as the company advances towards commercialization.
Photonic said this morning that this brings the total size of this financing to $200 million USD ($275 million CAD) and that the round gives it a $2-billion USD ($2.7-billion CAD) post-money valuation.
This financing comes from government, strategic partners, and international investors.
Photonic previously announced an initial close of $180 million CAD in January. That portion came from a group that included first-time backers Planet First Partners, the Royal Bank of Canada, and Telus, as well as existing investors like the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation and strategic partner Microsoft.
New investors—which included the Business Development Bank of Canada, Export Development Canada, Bell Ventures, Firgun Ventures, and InBC Investment Corp.— participated in this final close, which also saw follow-on support from Mubadala Capital.
In a news release, Photonic CEO Don Mattrick said this financing unites government, strategic partners, and international investors from across Canada, Europe, the United Kingdom, and the Middle East “around a shared conviction: that commercial-scale quantum computing is within reach—and that its economic impact will be transformative.”
Mattrick, who took over for Paul Terry as CEO in March, added that the company plans to use this capital to hit key milestones, grow its team, and deepen its partnerships.
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Photonic, which was founded in 2016, has now raised more than $350 million USD ($475 million CAD) to develop a useful quantum computer and sell its services at scale.
As Terry, now CPO, told BetaKit in January, the company is “commercializing a new branch of physics” by using a property of quantum physics called entanglement to network quantum computers together. Entanglement is when two particles become linked together, even when they are far apart, allowing quantum information to essentially teleport from one place to another.
Photonic aims to harness entanglement to perform increasingly powerful computation, and sell that capability to corporations and, eventually, governments. Terry said in January that Photonic was gearing up to commercialize its tech and that he expected this round to be the last financing the firm required to become cash-flow positive.
Photonic is one of three Canadian quantum computing companies participating in both Canada’s new Quantum Champions Program and the second phase of the US DARPA Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, which aim to support companies in the quest to develop a functional, fault-tolerant quantum computer. One of the others, Toronto’s Xanadu, recently went public on the Nasdaq and Toronto Stock Exchange.
Feature image courtesy Photonic.
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