The Engine has participated in a $21m series A round for its portfolio company Zapata Computing, a quantum technology spinout of Harvard University.
Zapata Computing, a US-based quantum computing spinout of Harvard University, raised $21m in a series A round yesterday that featured the Engine, the incubator formed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Comcast Ventures, the corporate venturing division of mass media conglomerate Comcast, and venture capital firm Prelude Ventures co-led the round.
BASF Venture Capital and Robert Bosch Venture Capital, respective investment subsidiaries of chemicals company BASF and engineering group Robert Bosch, also participated, as did venture capital firms Pitango Ventures and Pillar VC.
Founded in 2017, Zapata Computing is commercialising quantum algorithms that enable high-performance computing in sectors requiring vast processing power, such as chemistry, pharmaceuticals, logistics, finance and materials.
The software platform is hardware-agnostic, operating across devices built by companies such as Google, IBM and Honeywell.
Zapata builds on work led by Alán Aspuru-Guzik, who was a professor at Harvard at the time but has since moved to University of Toronto. He co-founded Zapata together with four members of his research team – Yudong Cao, Jonathan Olson, Peter Johnson, and Jhonathan Romero.
Christopher Savoie, who was previously involved in a project that led to the development of technology group Apple’s voice assistant Siri, is also a co-founder. Savoie now serves as chief executive of Zapata.
The series A funding will support Zapata’s expansion efforts, enabling the spinout to accelerate its product development and enter new markets and geographies.
Zapata previously obtained $5.4m in seed funding in April 2018, a month before the spinout’s official unveiling. The seed round was co-led by the Engine and Pillar VC, with participation from Prelude Ventures and Founders Fund’s FF Science vehicle.
Aspuru-Guzik said: “The playbook for quantum computing is being written right now by first movers like Zapata.
“As the enterprise demand for our quantum solutions continues unabated, Zapata has a distinct opportunity to aggressively and rapidly cultivate the next generation of quantum science talent who can transform the promise of quantum technology into reality.”
– The feature image shows Zapta Computing’s co-founders.
