Wa’ed Ventures Invests $18M In PASQAL's Series B Round
One of Suadi Arabia’s most active VCs, Wa’ed Ventures, has made a participatory investment of $18 million into the Series B round of $108 million raised for PASQAL, a French quantum computing startup.
Although this is not the VC’s highest investment, this is the VC’s first investment in 2023. This investment round was led by Temasek and had the participation of other investors such as Bpifrance, Quantonation, European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund, Eni Next, and Daphni.
The round was made known via a press release by the computing startup which highlighted the investors and what the raised funds will be used for. According to the startup, the funds will be used to propel its research project and development measures to other to build a 1,000-qubit quantum computer within a short period while it focuses on the in-depth developments of the fault-tolerant architectures as a continuous project.
While addressing the investment in the press release, Wa’ed said, “Investing in PASQAL is in line with our mission of backing cutting-edge technologies that could have profound impacts on the world. Quantum computing has the potential to solve incredibly important problems across the different sectors, and we believe that PASQAL is well positioned to be a leader in the industry, driving the localization of advanced technologies in the MENA region for decades to come”.
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PASQAL was launched in 2019 by Georges-Olivier Reymond, It was built to be a software startup developing quantum computing solutions and tools for commercial use. This fund will also aid its regional expansion plan with a foresight to expand globally.
Speaking about the round, PASQAL’s CEO said, “We are on a clear path to deliver a quantum computer capable of unlocking commercial advantage for our customers, and this latest investment round will help us reach this goal by 2024.”
He continued by saying, “This funding round validates that neutral atom technology is a premier platform for delivering real-world quantum applications, and we are proud to see its potential recognised by top investors.”