Riverlane Raises $75 Million to Fix Quantum Computing Bugs

Riverain Raised $75 million to build quantum error correction technology.

The Series C funding will help the company achieve its ambitious quantum error correction (QEC) roadmap. If you’re not sure why a company would raise money to fix quantum computing errors, beware.

Microsoft Copilot says it’s like a cosmic spell checker for quantum computers. That’s important because quantum computing is like a high-stakes Jenga game on a wobbly table. The building blocks are qubits, but Copilot speculates that they’re divas. They’re sensitive to temperature, cosmic rays, electromagnetic waves, and more. They wobble, jitter, and suffer from noise. So to handle the enormous benefits of quantum computing, there has to be a way to correct errors.

The demand for quantum error correction technology has grown dramatically over the past year. Driven by a series of technological breakthroughs, improvements in qubit quality, and a global shift toward building error-correcting quantum systems, the quantum computing industry is now looking beyond today’s small, error-prone machines to the next generation of “fault-tolerant” quantum computers with integrated QEC technology.

To achieve this, Riverain says, the system error rate would need to be reduced by a factor of 10,000, which currently overwhelms all quantum computers, and the company believes it has a solution to this problem.

This funding will enable Riverlane to scale operations to meet the rapidly growing global market demand for its QEC technology, with the goal of achieving one million error-free quantum computations by 2026.

I asked about the significance of the numerical goal of performing a quantum computer operation a million times without error by 2026.

The company said: “The million-error-free operation milestone represents a significant technological turning point, enabling quantum computers to perform tasks that supercomputers cannot simulate. Reaching this threshold will open the door to exploring new use cases involving simulating complex chemical processes. For example, simulating and designing better chemical catalysts could yield new battery materials for more efficient clean energy storage and new processes for cleaner fertilizer production.”

The round was led by European growth equity sustainable investment platform Planet First Partners. Other investors include sustainability venture capital investor ETF Partners and Singapore-based global investor EDBI.

Existing investors Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC), Amadeus Capital Partners, the UK’s National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF), and HPC leader Altair also participated.

“Quantum error correction is a critical enabler of the industry’s next great leap forward, from today’s error-prone small machines to large, reliable quantum computers that will usher in a new era of human progress that is as profound as the digital revolution,” Steve Brierley, Riverlane’s CEO, said in a statement. “Our partners see value in working with Riverlane to deliver solutions that fit their needs, and we are building the right product at the right time to seize this opportunity.”

Riverlane has assembled the world’s largest dedicated quantum error correction team of nearly 100 interdisciplinary experts who are developing its core product, Deltaflow. Applicable to quantum computers using all major qubit types, Deltaflow consists of proprietary QEC chips, hardware, and software technologies that work together to correct billions of errors per second.

Today’s best quantum computers can only perform a few hundred quantum operations before failing. Deltaflow will help this scale to millions and ultimately trillions of error-free quantum operations. Achieving this scale opens up innovative applications in industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemistry, materials science, and transportation.

“We invest in companies that have the potential to have a transformative impact on society and the environment,” Nathan Medlock, managing partner at Planet First Partners, said in a statement. “Riverlane’s focus is
Combining our research in quantum error correction with collaborations with quantum computer manufacturers around the world will enable new quantum computing applications that could accelerate global markets and make a significant contribution to solving social and environmental challenges.”

Riverlane’s roadmap, released earlier this month, outlines a development path to achieving one million (mega) error-free quantum computing operations (QuOps) by the end of 2026. The roadmap details a series of product launches, each incorporating key scientific and technological breakthroughs toward this goal.

The milestone, called ‘MegaQuOp’, marks a major technological turning point, enabling quantum computers to perform tasks that are impossible to simulate on supercomputers.

Reaching this threshold will enable the exploration of new use cases involving the simulation of complex chemical processes. For example, simulation and design of better chemical catalysts could lead to new battery materials for more efficient clean energy storage and new processes for cleaner fertilizer production.

“When we led the world’s first successful quantum supremacy experiment in 2019, it helped spark a collective optimism about what quantum computers could achieve,” John Martinis, a physics professor at UC Santa Barbara and former lead for quantum computing at Google Quantum AI, said in a statement. “Five years later, I’m even more optimistic. Building the next generation of devices that can live up to the incredible promise of this technology will require a massive step change in scale and reliability, and that will require reliable error-correction schemes in quantum hardware.”

Riverlane partners with leading quantum computing companies and government agencies, including Rigetti Computing, Alice & Bob, QuEra Computing, Infleqtion, Atlantic Quantum, and national labs such as Oakridge National Lab in the US and the National Quantum Computing Centre (NǪCC) in the UK. With this investment, Riverlane plans to scale its operations to meet the growing demand from other hardware companies and governments around the world.

Riverlane’s operational expansion will introduce a range of new opportunities across the company, including hardware and software engineering, quantum scientist positions, and operational roles. Current Riverlane vacancies can be found here.

Riverain has 97 employees.