DI25012 Quantum Computing V01 231125

 QUANTUM LEAP FOR QATAR

Kris Naudts and Zeynep Koruturk, the co-founders of Firgun Ventures, have secured $70 million

A new British venture capital firm has won backing from Qatar to pump tens of millions of pounds into quantum computing start-ups, writes William Turvill.

Firgun Ventures closed its first investment round at $70 million (£53 million) this weekend, with the biggest stake taken by the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA). It is targeting $250 million but will be investing in quantum firms from its London office from this week.

“There is a very good set of investment opportunities here,” said co-founder Kris Naudts. While Firgun plans to invest across the globe, he said the UK is a good base due to its strength in this area of technology. The Tony Blair Institute estimates that the UK accounts for 64 of 513 tech firms across the world that focus solely on quantum, second only to the US.

Quantum computing is heralded as one of the next big developments in tech. Using extremely fast dataprocessing it could be able to solve problems that defeat any existing supercomputer.

“The UK has done well mostly from its leadership position academically, so the Oxford-Cambridge-London triangle,” said Naudts. He said many UK firms have problems raising money, and this is where Firgun fits in. He added: “But kudos to the UK for having the second most quantum start-ups — the country’s not that big.”

The venture capital firm is led by Naudts, a Belgian doctor and psychiatrist who founded the travel website Culture Trip, and Zeynep Koruturk, a former Goldman Sachs executive director.

Their initial backing comes from Qatar, several family offices and Ilyas Khan, the British founder of Quantinuum, formerly known as Cambridge Quantum Computing, which achieved a valuation of $10 billion.

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