US$15m Series A top-up for quantum computing tech scale-up Diraq

Sydney-based quantum computing technology company Diraq has successfully completed a Series A-2 capital raise of US$15 million ($23 million) in a round led by Paris-headquartered specialist investor Quantonation with participation from John Higgins Family Investments and UNSW, Sydney.

The funding round extends an initial Series A worth US$20 million ($30.7 million) that was led by technology investor Allectus Capital, taking total funding of Diraq’s technology to US$120 million ($184 million) when also considering research funding from Australian and US government programs.

Diraq currently has 59 patents and patent applications to its name related to its foundational intellectual property (IP) in the design and operation of silicon spin qubits that are compatible with CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) foundry manufacturing.

If successful in its development, Diraq's technology will allow quantum computers of the future to comprise billions of qubits - the quantum equivalent of bits, a standard unit of information in traditional computing.

Whilst it will take many phases of development, testing and iteration to get there, Diraq is dedicated to building a full-stack quantum computer that bypasses the current era of large, error-ridden systems and moves the industry directly to fault-tolerant computing. 

The company's spin-based technology in silicon has demonstrated qubit control with sufficient accuracy to allow for scalable error correction, published in more than 30 papers in the highly prestigious Nature group journals.

"This new Series A-2 funding will be used to expand our team in Australia and launch in the US as well as capitalise on our existing international partnerships," says Diraq CEO and founder Andrew Dzurak.

"We are working closely with our foundry partners to drive qubit development based on tried and tested CMOS techniques coupled with our proprietary designs.

"We are focused on delivering energy-efficient processors with billions of qubits on one chip contained in one refrigerator, rather than thousands of chips and refrigerators requiring hundreds of square metres of space in a warehouse."

Quantonation, the world’s first venture capital fund dedicated to quantum technologies, will plant its partner Will Zeng on the Diraq board following the raise.

"The primary technical focus in the next 18 months will be on the development of a quantum chip through a standard semiconductor foundry," says Zeng.

"This milestone will serve as a proof point, solidifying the viability of Diraq’s technology and propelling the company’s scale-up program aimed at constructing the most powerful quantum computers in the world."

Diraq's US-based chairman William Jeffrey, former director of the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), says the funding round shows the international recognition of the company's capabilities and potential impact. 

"There is a key advantage to our technology which is based on modified transistors – the same components that are integral to our daily lives," says Jeffrey.

"As one of the few global companies pursuing the goal of achieving millions of qubits on a single chip, we can leverage over 50 years and trillions of dollars of investment in the semiconductor industry."

The latest funding round for Diraq follows a successful year of capital raises for Australian quantum technology-focused companies in 2023, including Silicon Quantum Computing (SQC), Nomad Atomics, Quantum Brilliance, and Q-CTRL.