Integrating quantum computing into real-world computer applications is an ongoing problem, as the platforms are architected fundamentally differently. BlueQubit, a San Francisco-based quantum software startup founded by Stanford alumni, thinks it might have the answer.
Its Quantum Software as a Service (QSaaS) platform attempts to tackle the above problem by providing end-users with access to what’s known as ‘Quantum Processing Units’ (QPUs) and quantum computing emulators.
To further its mission, it’s now raised $10 million in a Seed funding round led by Nyca Partners. The idea is to marry enterprise applications, and advanced quantum hardware.
Sectors like finance, pharmaceuticals, and material science are starting to feel the boundaries of what’s possible with classical computing, which is why Quantum computing is receiving so much attention lately.
Quantum holds the promise of unlocking new solutions to many intractable problems. Google’s recent announcement of Willow, its latest, quantum computing chip, showed a glimpse of a world where computers could perform a computation, in under five minutes, that would take one of today’s fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years (that’s the number one followed by lots of zeros).
BlueQubit’s QSaaS framework supports use cases such as financial modeling, pharmaceutical development and visualization.
Hrant Ghairbyan, CEO and Co-Founder of BlueQubit, told TechCrunch the company leverages large-scale classical computing resources—specifically, a fleet of GPUs—to develop and test quantum algorithms before deploying them on real quantum processors.
“This approach enables us to scale effectively and pioneer novel algorithms for quantum machine learning and quantum optimization,” he said.
Its software stack runs quantum emulators “up to 100 times faster than commonly available alternatives, combined with a set of algorithms developed by our team,” he added.
MIT graduate Gharibyan co-authored a groundbreaking ‘wormhole teleportation’ algorithm, which the Google Quantum AI team later implemented on their superconducting processor.
BlueQubit’s CTO, Hayk Tepanyan, went to Stanford University, and later worked on Google’s infrastructure team. Gharibyan and Tepanyan met at Stanford.
“We decided to start the company while sitting on surfboards in Santa Monica, CA, in the spring of 2022,” said Gharibyan. “We had just heard a new announcement from the IBM Quantum team about progress on superconducting qubits, and it was clear that the quantum landscape was advancing at an incredible pace.”
“We have been looking for a team to invest in who are looking to enable financial services firms to hit the ground running once quantum is here,” said Tom Brown, Partner at Nyca, said in a statement. “Hrant and Hayk have the background, skills, and drive to operationalize something that until recently has mostly been theory.”
Also participating in this round was Restive, Chaac Ventures, NKM Capital, Presto Tech Horizons, BigStory, Untapped Ventures, Formula VC and Granatus.
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