IQM Quantum Computers has received 50 million euros in venture funding from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, the Finnish quantum hardware and cloud computing company said. The investment is intended to boost IQM’s global expansion and accelerate its chip and technology development ahead of a planned dual listing in the United States and Helsinki.
The company disclosed that the capital will be used to scale operations, drive its chip and technology roadmap, and reinforce its market position. IQM’s chief executive, Jan Goetz, described the infusion as part of a broader push to increase commercial traction and move the business toward profitability, saying: "It’s basically a question of ramping up the commercial traction to bring us to profitability." The funding announcement was made on Monday.
IQM has previously said it expects to list its shares later this year in the U.S. through a merger with Real Asset Acquisition Corp, a special purpose acquisition company, and that the transaction implies an initial equity valuation of around $1.8 billion. The firm sells quantum computing hardware and cloud computing time, and reported a near doubling of sales to roughly $35 million last year. At the end of that year, IQM said it had bookings in excess of $100 million.
Goetz also noted areas where IQM sees additional commercial opportunity, highlighting private data centres as a segment it has not yet fully tapped. "What we also yet haven’t fully tapped into is the whole field of private data centres," he said, referring to hardware sales.
BlackRock, in a social media post on Thursday, framed quantum computing as significant to the future of computing, calling it "the next era of computing." Tony Kim, head of the global technology team within the Fundamental Equities division of BlackRock’s Portfolio Management Group, expanded on the relationship between AI and quantum computing in a separate video post, saying: "AI reasons from data. Quantum reasons from physics. Together though, they could reshape what is computationally possible."
The company said the fresh capital will support a range of priorities including commercial expansion and continued investment in chip and systems development. IQM’s product set and cloud services sit at the intersection of hardware sales and hosted compute time, and the new funding is positioned to deepen those capabilities as the company prepares for public market access.
For reference, the financing converts to approximately $57.64 million. (Exchange rate used: $1 = 0.8675 euros.)