Most quantum-computing startups ask the world to build them an entirely new industry: exotic materials, bespoke fabrication, supply chains that do not yet exist. Quobly is making a quieter bet.
The Grenoble company thinks the path to a useful quantum machine runs through the silicon chip industry that already exists, and on Wednesday it raised €115M, about $133M, to prove it.
The Series A is led by France’s state-backed Bpifrance, chipmaker STMicroelectronics and SEALSQ, with participation from the European Innovation Council Fund, Blast, Air Liquide’s venture arm ALIAD and existing investor Innovacom.
It is a substantial step up from the roughly €21M the company raised last year to develop a 100-qubit chip, and it is explicitly aimed at industrialisation rather than research.
The investor list is the thesis in miniature. STMicroelectronics is one of Europe’s largest chipmakers, and Quobly’s approach depends on exactly that kind of partner. Rather than inventing a new way to build qubits, Quobly encodes them in silicon using the same fabrication techniques that already produce conventional processors at scale.
