Jan. 9, 2023 — Oxford Ionics has announced the acquisition of £30 million (US$36.5 million) in Series A funding from some of the world’s leading quantum and tech investors. The round was led by Oxford Science Enterprises and Braavos Investment Advisers. Lansdowne Partners, Prosus Ventures, 2xN, Torch Partners and Hermann Hauser (founder of chip giant ARM) also participated.

Founded in 2019, Oxford Ionics takes a unique approach to designing and scaling one of the most promising quantum computing technologies – trapped ions. As multiple technologies vie for position in the race for a quantum future, trapped ions have long proved superior. The highest-performing quantum systems are powered by trapped ions; Oxford Ionics’ technology has been shown to consistently outperform the others.

Oxford Ionics’ trapped-ion technology holds world records for the highest performance quantum operations, longest quantum coherence time, and highest performance quantum network. Importantly, the company has shown that it can maintain this performance using chips manufactured on a semiconductor production line.

“If we’re to identify and unlock the true power and potential of quantum computing we need to crack the critical issues that are holding it back – scalability, integration and performance,” said Dr. Chris Ballance, co-founder of Oxford Ionics. “Our unique trapped-ion approach has been developed to address all three. At Oxford Ionics, we’re focused on building technologies that will help quantum computing finish the race, not just take small, incremental steps. Our latest round of funding, and the knowledge, insight and expertise of our new investors bring us even closer to this goal.”

Record-breaking Performance

Oxford Ionics’ record-breaking performance stems from pioneering approach. Until now, trapped-ion systems have largely relied on lasers to control qubits. This approach performs well for small processors, but becomes untenable and error-prone as the size of the processor scales, and the number of qubits increases.

Instead of lasers, Oxford Ionics’ trapped-ion processors use a proprietary, patented Electronic Qubit Control (EQC) system to control the qubits. This allows for the combination of the unrivalled quantum performance of individual atoms with the scalability and reliability of electronics integrated into silicon chips.

Not only does this approach deliver the highest level of performance possible, it does so in a way that makes the Oxford Ionics processors integrable and scalable as standard. Oxford Ionics has proven the potential of this approach in a real-world environment, producing its quantum processors in a standard semiconductor foundry through its partnership with Infineon Technologies AG.

About Oxford Ionics

Oxford Ionics is the high-performance quantum computing company, delivering world-leading innovations to create the most powerful, accurate and reliable quantum computers to solve the world’s most important problems. Unparalleled precision is realised by combining the world’s highest quality qubits – trapped ions – with a unique noiseless electronic qubit control technology. Oxford Ionics achieves the highest performance ever demonstrated while using chips manufactured on a semiconductor production line.

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Source: Oxford Ionics