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Despite the uncertain economy, Quantum Machines keeps expanding

In the midst of global economic instability, conventional thinking would have a Series B firm bunker down, slashing expenses, and waiting out the storm. However, Israeli startup Quantum Machines is bucking this trend by expanding operations.

In addition to the $50 million Series B the business announced in September 2021, it has now received an additional $20 million. While CEO and co-founder Itamar Sivan wasn’t ready to provide precise growth indicators, he did imply that the business was on track to reach its sales and expansion targets for 2022.

Sivans said, “It’s interesting, I spoke with one of our investors a few of days ago, and they stated, ours could really be the only firm they met lately that was on schedule for 2022.” In fact, the company’s sales quadrupled last year, and another doubling is projected for 2023. He wouldn’t provide an exact figure, but he did say that it was above $10 million in the previous year. I’m not allowed to discuss numbers like that, but I can confirm that it’s in the multi-millions. Thus, he concluded, “there is still a large gap between the numbers 10 and 99.”

Sivans thinks the firm is growing because of the importance of quantum research at a time when consumers are cutting down on other forms of technology. That’s good news for his firm, since international competition to develop quantum computers is having minimal effect on the overall economy.

Because governments cannot afford to lose this race, I think that quantum computing is a safer area to be in right now. This may be an irreversible trend,” he said, “if a nation stops down for a few of years [due to economic worries].

Although Sivans cannot disclose the identities of his clients due to the exclusive nature of quantum computing research, he did reveal that the firm currently serves 280 clients in 20 countries, including government agencies, educational institutions, and private businesses. We may assume that the Harvard University, Weizmann Institute of Science, Seoul National University, ENS Lyon, USC, and CEA Saclay blurbs included on the company’s website are client testimonials.

It also made its first purchase, of a Danish firm called QDevil that makes equipment to manage the quantum process, in the previous year. The addition of this new firm should work well with the current Quantum Machines infrastructure. As a consequence, the business is now composed of two departments: Quantum Control and Quantum Electronics.

The initial platform investigates the function of classical computing in the quantum process, as we explained at the time of the $50 million funding:

As Sivan explains, the classical computer has a software and hardware layer, but quantum machines have three layers: “The quantum hardware, which is the heart, and on top of that you have classical hardware […] and then on top of that you have software,” he said.

“We focus on the two latter layers. So classical hardware and the software that drives it. Now at the heart of our hardware is in fact a classical processor. So this is I think one of the most interesting parts of the quantum stack,” he explained.

In September 2021, there were 60 people working for the firm. Now, they have more than 140 people and are still hiring.

Investors Qualcomm Ventures, Red Dot Capital Partners, Samsung NEXT, Meron Capital, and Alumni Ventures, as well as an undisclosed group of institutional investors, contributed to the $20 million funding round that concluded at the end of 2017. The firm has successfully raised $100 million to date.