Paris startup Welinq has raised €5 million in a pre-seed round aimed at supporting the deployment of various connected quantum computers based on the Neutral Atom approach.
The €5 million pre-seed round was led by Quantonation, with Runa Capital participating along with the French National Quanton Initiative, the French Investment Bank (BPI) and the European Commission.
There are various approaches when it comes to quantum computing architectures, including superconducting qubits, ion traps, photonics, and silicon. The physical substrates that enable the creation of qubits are the basic building blocks of quantum computers that we don’t hear about every day, the building blocks of neutral atoms. The current flavor is that of ion traps (see, for example, Oxford Ionics).
The ion trap approach works by exploiting the imbalance between protons and electrons, whereas neutral atoms, as their name suggests, use equal amounts of positive and negative charges. . Similar to ion trap systems, individual qubits can be encoded to atomic energy levels. In doing so, the qubit retains her 3D geometry of the host atom. Nearby qubits can be programmed to interact via a two-qubit gate.
If you are going crazy at this point, fear not. Ultimately, what this means is that the neutral atom approach opens up the potential for fairly heavy-duty quantum computing.
One such possibility, and an area Welinq is focusing on, is interconnecting quantum computers. This will allow quantum computing to scale beyond the thousands of qubits, the goal of realizing Richard’s Feynman dream. The neutral atom approach not only scales computational power, but is also a core component of long-range quantum information networks. Simply put, it’s the quantum internet.
“Today, quantum memory has been identified as the critical piece of hardware missing in scaling up quantum technology. To give, you have to demonstrate very high performance and robustness,” explains Tom Darras, CEO and co-founder of Welinq.
As Neutral Atoms approach the capital, it’s unclear whether Paris will have flags on the ground, but with Wellink and neighbor Pascal moving full speed ahead on their way, the City of Light is dis You may be ushering in a brave new world without Topia. .
Lead image: Sebastian Borda
