Announcing our £30m Series A funding

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 our 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. 

In tests*, our trapped-ion technology holds world records for the highest performance quantum operations, longest quantum coherence time, and highest performance quantum network. Importantly, we have shown that we can maintain this performance using chips manufactured on a semiconductor production line. 

Record-breaking performance

Oxford Ionics’ record-breaking performance stems from our 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 us to combine 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. We have proven the potential of this approach in a real-world environment, producing our quantum processors in a standard semiconductor foundry through our partnership with Infineon Technologies AG.

World-class team

Today, the Oxford Ionics team is made up of the brightest minds across the quantum sector who between them have over 100 years of expertise in this space; 10 PhDs and more than 130 peer-reviewed scientific publications. 

This team has grown tenfold over the past three years and it’s our combination of pioneering vision and deep expertise that has seen us attract some of the leading quantum and tech investors of the past three decades. Before co-founding the quantum-inspired venture capital firm 2xN, investor Niels Nielsen was an early backer, and former chairman of Cambridge Quantum. Cambridge Quantum recently merged with Honeywell Quantum Solutions to form Quantinuum, one of the world’s largest integrated quantum computing companies. Fellow Oxford Ionics investor Hermann Hauser founded chip giant ARM and was an early backer of quantum technologies. 

We’re hiring!

This latest funding round will be used to further our expansion with the hiring of people in roles across the company’s functions – from software developers and engineers to designers, scientists and a growing back-office team. Oxford Ionics’ current vacancies can be found here.  

Quotes:

Dr Chris Ballance, co-founder of Oxford Ionics said: “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. 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.”

Will Goodlad from Oxford Science Enterprises said: “Through its unique approach, developed by some of the world’s best minds in the quantum space, Oxford Ionics is laying the foundations to finally make quantum computing a scalable, integrable and viable option. Building on more than a decade at the forefront of this sector, Chris, Tom and the team have been able to demonstrate, time and again, that their work in the lab can, and will, extend to the real world and we’re thrilled to be joining them on this journey.”

Niels Nielsen, co-founder of 2xN said: “Quantum computing opens up the next frontier in computing power for many industries yet getting there requires the development of qubit technologies that can be built at a massive scale. All without sacrificing power, and while keeping error levels to a minimum. Oxford Ionics’ EQC technology offers a path to bringing the power and potential of trapped ion qubits and integrating it into classical semiconductor processes.” 

Oxford Ionics’ latest funding round takes the total raised by the startup to £37 million. 

For Press Enquiries contact media@oxionics.com.

Notes:

*[​​PhysRev Lett 113.220501]  Most accurate quantum operation ever performed, longest coherence time for a bare qubit, highest fidelity quantum state preparation and measurement

*[PhysRevLett.117.060504][Nature 597, 209–213 (2021)] Highest fidelity two-qubit quantum gate in any technology

*[PhysRevLett.124.110501] Highest performance quantum network

*[Nature 555, 75–78 (2018)] Fastest trapped ion two-qubit gate

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. oxionics.com.

About Oxford Science Enterprises

Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE) is an independent, billion-pound investment company, created in 2015 to found, fund and build transformational businesses via its unique partnership with the University of Oxford, the world’s #1 research university. This partnership enables OSE to work with the brightest academic minds tackling the world’s toughest challenges and guarantees unrivalled access to their scientific research. In collaboration with its global network of entrepreneurs and advisers, OSE shapes and nurtures these complex ideas into successful businesses, while targeting attractive returns for shareholders. Actively focused on a core portfolio of around 40 companies spanning three high-growth, high-impact sectors – Life Sciences, Health Tech, and Deep Tech – the company adopts a flexible, long-term investment approach, recognising the path from ground-breaking research to global markets takes time and resilience. To date, OSE has invested £0.5 billion in over 80 ambitious companies built on Oxford science.

Find out more: oxfordscienceenterprises.com | Twitter | LinkedIn

About Braavos Investment Advisors

Braavos Investment Advisers is a specialist venture capital firm investing in companies founded on scientific breakthroughs. Based in London, it manages $500M.