D-Wave secures $17M Series C for quantum computing

February 4, 2008 — D-Wave Systems, developer of quantum computers targeted at commercial applications, has announced the closing of a $17 million Series C financing. The round was led by International Investment and Underwriting (IIU) of Dublin, Ireland and was strongly supported by existing investors.

D-Wave will use the funds for product development, operations and business development activity.

“Our vision is to make quantum computing power available globally and to accomplish this requires a network of international partners,” said D-Wave CEO Herb Martin.

D-Wave is the first company to announce the development of a commercial quantum computer and has twice publicly demonstrated prototype systems running real-world applications, the company said.

The D-Wave machine is intended to be deployed as a co-processor, which will provide acceleration to applications executing on classical digital computer systems.

D-Wave’s system will be available for on-line access in early 2009 and will be useful for accelerating high value applications involving discrete optimization, pattern matching, machine learning and constrained search with preferences. Such applications are found throughout the operations research, life sciences, finance, travel, chemical and petrochemical industries. Applications in quantum simulation and electronic design automation will follow soon thereafter, the company said.

The latest financing round was fully subscribed by existing investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), GrowthWorks Capital Ltd, BDC Venture Capital, Harris & Harris, bcIMC and Pender Fund.

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