UK-based quantum computing startup Quantum Motion has opened a new lab in Sydney, giving it a platform to further tap into the wealth of research talent in Australia.
Based out of deep tech incubator Cicada Innovations, the lab is the first outside of the UK for the company that was founded in 2017 and has raised more than £42 million (A$81 million) in funding.
It will allow the Quantum Motion, which spun out of the University College London and the University of Oxford, to contribute to the country’s growing quantum industry and access a broad range of talent, the company said.
“You can’t do innovation without talent. Brains are the engines of innovation. The quality of research and talent in Australia is undeniable,” Quantum Motion chief executive James Palles-Dimmock said.
Mr Palles-Dimmock said more than 60 per cent of the senior quantum engineers in the company’s hardware team are from Sydney. The company has more than 60 specialists in quantum theory, engineering and software in total.
Through a partnership with the Sydney Quantum Academy, Quantum Motion also plans to offer studentship opportunities with some of Sydney’s top universities.
“Australia is an exciting place for the technology sector,” Quantum Motion’s lead quantum engineer, Mark Johnson, added. “We are looking forward to being part of the growing quantum sector network around Sydney and helping to develop that.”
Quantum Motion is one of seven lead providers chosen to deliver a testbed program run by the United Kingdom’s National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) and the UK Research and Innovation.
The £30 million program aims to “bridge the gap between academic experimentation and proprietary commercial quantum computers” and settle on the most promising routes towards the first commercially available quantum computer.
Quantum Motion will build a quantum processor test bed for its site in Oxford. The prototype system will be based on the same silicon chips found in consumer electronics today.
In Australia, the local quantum sector has called for a similar scheme, with one startup describing the federal and Queensland government investment in PsiQuantum earlier this year as being out of step with international “best practice”.
Quantum Motion has raised £62 million in equity and grant funding to date, including through the UK testbeds program and its original £8 million Series A funding rounds in 2020.
In February 2023, the company closed a £42 million Series B funding round led by Bosch Ventures. Porsche and the UK government’s National Security Strategic Investment Fund were also among the backers.
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