The acquisition comes amid a sizzling period for the quantum computing space. Over the past year, the sector has seen steeply rising stock prices among publicly traded companies, a succession of breakthroughs, and continued strong startup investment.

Per College Park, Maryland-based IonQ, this latest megadeal is mostly about keeping its technology cutting edge. Though just six years old, U.K.-based Oxford Ionics is known for its research prowess. The company said it holds world records in multiple key metrics for quantum performance.

Oxford Ionics has also been a favorite among startup investors, previously raising $53 million in known venture and grant funding. Its lead venture backers include and .

Ten-year-old IonQ describes itself as a specialist in quantum computing and networking, developing high performance systems based on trapped ion technology. Founded in 2015, it went public in October 2021 via a SPAC merger.

Unlike most post-SPAC mergers, IonQ shares didn’t plummet in subsequent months. However, the stock didn’t really take off until late last year, with the company recently boasting a market cap around $10 billion.

Quantum takes off

The deal comes on the heels of sharp gains on the public markets for the quantum computing space. Shares of publicly listed companies in the sector, including IonQ, and , began taking off last fall and posted multifold gains by the end of the year.

Investor enthusiasm has extended to the venture capital arena as well. In 2024, startups in the quantum computing space raised $1.94 billion, , up 143% from the prior year.

Big rounds accumulated at a steady clip, including:

• In January 2024, Broomfield, Colorado-based — which was spun off of in 2021 and merged with — locked up a $300 million equity fundraise at a pre-money valuation of $5 billion.
• In late December, spinoff — an AI and quantum computing startup — also raised a $300 million round at a $5.6 billion valuation.
• In February of this year, Boston-based , a neutral-atom quantum computing startup, raised $230 million in a financing backed by ’s and .

So far this year, the startup investment pace has remained brisk, with $1.1 billion invested across 39 known rounds. Just last week, , a developer of atom-based quantum systems for sensing and computing applications, raised $100 million in a Series C backed by , ’s , and .

The surge in funding for quantum startups was likely spurred on by big breakthroughs by companies including and last year. Those milestones show no signs of stopping — just this year, said it had created a new state of matter in its quest to make an extremely powerful machine — based on a new physical composition.

The rise of AI is another contributing factor, with quantum computing poised to help with the technology’s massive computing needs and energy consumption.

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Related reading:

• Quantum Computing Hits New Venture Dollar Highmark
• The Week’s Biggest Funding Rounds: Defense Tech Leads Week With Anduril’s $2.5B Raise
• Quantinuum Raises $300M At $5B Valuation

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This is a weekly feature that runs down the week’s top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out the biggest funding rounds of last week here.

Software may be eating the world, but it was hardware-intensive startups that scooped up this week’s largest funding rounds, including heavily funded defense tech unicorn , and orbital spacecraft developer .

1. , $2.5B, defense tech: Defense tech startup Anduril Industries has raised $2.5 billion in a Series G round led by , more than doubling its valuation to $30.5 billion post-money, the company’s chairman, , told on Thursday.

2. , $300M, spacetech: Impulse Space, a startup focused on orbital spacecraft that pull satellites into more precise locations, raised $300 million in a Series C round led by . The financing brings total funding to date for Redondo Beach, California-based Impulse to $525 million, .

3. , $150M, fusion energy: Foothills Ranch, California-based TAE Technologies, a developer of commercial fusion power, raised $150 million in new funding. , and participated in the financing, which brings total equity funding to date to $1.5 billion, .

4. (tied) , $100M, events platform: Fever, a technology platform for live experiences, that it raised over $100 million in new funding from and Point72 Private Investments. Founded in 2014, the New York-based company offers a platform for finding and booking concerts, games and other live events in a selected city.

4. (tied) , $100M, quantum computing: Boulder, Colorado-based Infleqtion, a developer of atom-based quantum systems for sensing and computing applications, raised $100 million in Series C funding. Backers included , ’s , and .

6. , $75M, ophthalmic therapies: Spyglass Pharma, an Aliso Viejo, California-based developer of therapies for long-term management of glaucoma and other chronic ophthalmic diseases, raised $75 million in a Series D round led by . The financing brings total funding to date for the 6-year-old company to $185 million, .

7. , $62M, fashion: Vivrelle, a subscription service for luxury fashion accessories, raised a $62 million Series C funding round backed by . Founded in 2018, the New York-based startup offers access to a collection of designer handbags, jewelry and diamonds for a monthly membership fee.

8. , $58M, pain management: San Jose, California-based Allay Therapeutics, developer of medications for post-surgical pain management and recuperation, closed a $57.5 million Series D financing co-led by and . The company is currently carrying out clinical trials for patients undergoing knee replacement surgery.

9. , $56M, synthetic biology: Antheia, a startup using synthetic biology to sustainably produce medicines, raised $56 million in a Series C led by and The Menlo Park, California-based company plans to use the investment to scale production of thebaine, a key ingredient in , and to launch new products.

10. , $50M, artificial intelligence: Pactum, a startup offering an AI-enabled platform for enterprise procurement, raised $50 million in fresh funding, per a securities . The financing brings total funding to date for the Mountain View, California-headquartered company to $105 million, .

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the seven-day period of May 31-June 6. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the week.

Illustration:

This is a weekly feature that runs down the week’s top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out the biggest funding rounds of last week here.

This was a week right out of the free-spending days of 2021. Huge rounds were abundant — led by the biggest of them all as ’s massive $40 billion investment was finally announced.

1. , $40B, artificial intelligence: Of course the big news of the week was the $40 billion investment for led by . The deal is the biggest venture investment ever. Per details of the deal, SoftBank will build a syndicate of co-investors to provide $10 billion of the total, while it expects to fund the other $30 billion, with�� $10 billion of that through debt. The deal also is partially contingent upon conditions of OpenAI’s restructuring of its for-profit subsidiary. If that occurs, OpenAI will have a post-money valuation of $300 billion.

2. , $575M, fintech: Plaid raised a massive $575 million round led by at a $6.1 billion valuation. The San Francisco-based company plans to use the cash to pay employee tax withholding obligations related to share conversion and to offer some liquidity to employees via a tender offer. Plaid, which connects user bank accounts to fintech apps, had a planned $5.3 billion sale to scrapped back in 2021 following regulatory issues.

3. , $500M, energy: Nashville, Tennessee-based Silicon Ranch raised $500 million from European infrastructure investor . The big investment is likely a bet on the U.S.’ increasing electricity demands. Silicon Ranch — which operates solar and battery projects — has been on this list before. Back in 2022, the company raised $775 million in equity capital led by . Founded in 2011, the energy company has raised more than $2 billion, according to .

4. , $308M, artificial intelligence: New York-based Runway raised $308 million in a new round at about double its valuation from less than two years ago. The new round — led by — values the AI video startup at more than $3 billion, per . In June 2023, the company raised a $141 million extension to its December 2022 $50 million Series C. Runway makes software that lets users create videos using text prompts or images. Earlier in the week, Runway unveiled its new AI model, Gen-4, that allows users to create videos with consistent characters and backgrounds. Last fall, the company signed a deal with production company to create a customized video-generation model. The startup plans to use the fresh cash to develop AI focusing on its film and animation studio. Founded in 2018, it has raised more than $540 million, .

5. , $155M, biotech: Cambridge, Massachusetts-based AIRNA, a biotech startup developing RNA editing therapeutics to help with both rare and common conditions, closed a $155 million Series B led by and. The new cash will go toward launching a phase trial for AIRNA’s drug candidate for alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency and help it develop its pipeline of RNA editing therapeutics. Founded in 2021, the company has raised $245 million, .

6. (tied) , $150M, biotech: Atsena Therapeutics, a gene therapy company focused on reversing or preventing blindness, closed a $150 million Series C led by ’s Life Sciences arm. The money from the financing will be used to advance the Durham, North Carolina-based company’s treatment of X-linked retinoschisis, a genetic condition that is typically diagnosed in childhood and leads to blindness later in life. The proceeds will also support Atsena’s preclinical pipeline. Founded in 2019, the company has raised nearly $238 million, .

6. (tied)��, $150M, quantum computing: spinoff — an AI and quantum computing startup — added another $150 million to its Series E from the likes and . The add-on comes less than four months after the company announced it had raised a $300 million round at a $5.6 billion valuation. SandboxAQ is looking at the related effects of both AI and quantum — which is where the company gets “AQ” — to develop commercial products for telecom, financial services, health care, security and other computationally intensive sectors. The company already is working with a handful of customers on enterprise software and cybersecurity tools related to quantum computing. In March 2022, officially spun off its 6-year-old quantum tech group — SandboxAQ — which emerged as its own company after closing a $500 million financing round and naming former CEO chairman. SandboxAQ has raised over $950 million, per the company.

8. , $146M, software: Seattle-based Temporal Technologies locked up a big $146 million Series C at a $1.7 billion valuation led by . The company helps other companies manage complex software applications and will use the new cash to develop cloud products and invest in research and development for artificial intelligence use. The company raised a $103 million Series B in February 2022 at a valuation of a little more than $1.5 billion, followed by $75 million in a Series “B-Prime.” Founded in 2019, Temporal has raised $350 million, per the company.

10. , $102M, biotech: Neurona Therapeutics, a South San Francisco-based clinical-stage biotech company developing regenerative cell therapies for disorders of the nervous system, raised a $102 million financing round. Investors included Management & Research Co. Founded in 2008, the company has raised $426 million, .

Big global deals

The biggest raise this week came from across the pond.

• spinoff raised $600 million in its first external funding round as the company looks to apply artificial intelligence to the drug development process. The new round was led by with participation from . The London-based AI company will receive follow-on capital from existing investor .

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the seven-day period of March 29 to April 4. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the week.

Illustration:

The add-on comes less than four months after the company announced it had raised a $300 million round at a $5.6 billion valuation.

Other investors in the Series E add-on include , and .

SandboxAQ is looking at the related effects of both AI and quantum — which is where the company gets the “AQ” in its name — to develop commercial products for telecom, financial services, healthcare, security and other computationally intensive sectors. The company already is working with a handful of customers on enterprise software and cybersecurity tools related to quantum computing.

In March 2022, Alphabet officially spun off its 6-year-old quantum tech group — SandboxAQ — which emerged as its own company after closing a $500 million financing round and naming former CEO chairman.

Investors in the round include , Eric Schmidt, , , funds and accounts advised by , , , , and other funds and investors.

SandboxAQ has raised over $950 million, per the company.

Google tech

This is the second massive round from an Alphabet/Google spinout this week.

Earlier, raised $600 million in its first external funding round as the company looks to apply artificial intelligence to the drug development process.

That round was led by with participation from . The London-based AI company will receive follow-on capital from existing investor .

Isomorphic was spun out of Google’s in 2021.

Related Crunchbase Pro list:

Related reading:

• Alphabet-Backed Isomorphic Labs Raises $600M For AI Drug Development
• Quantum Computing Hits New Venture Dollar Highmark
• Alphabet Spins Off Quantum Company SandboxAQ; New Company Closes ‘Nine-Figure’ Round

Illustration:

The U.K.-based firm — which specializes in quantum error correction technology — raised a $75 million Series C led by . The round also includes participation from , , , , the and

The company’s tech helps quantum computers perform without succumbing to eventual errors. Such computers typically can only perform a few hundred quantum operations before failure.

“Quantum error correction is the critical enabler for the industry’s next huge wave of progress, from today’s small error-prone machines to large and reliable quantum computers that will start a new age of human progress as significant as the digital revolution,” said founder and CEO in a .

Founded in 2016, the company has raised nearly $121 million, .

Quantum on a roll

Quantum computing startups have certainly seen the love from investors this year.

So far this year, such startups have raised nearly $1.4 billion in more than two dozen rounds, per Crunchbase . That dollar amount is almost double the $777 million similar startups raised all of last year.

The dollar figure has been helped out by some huge rounds, including ’s $620 million raise in May from the Australian Commonwealth and governments to build a quantum computer at a location near Brisbane Airport in Brisbane, Australia, as well as ’s $300 million equity fundraise at a pre-money valuation of $5 billion from January.

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According to the filing, the company has raised a little over $71 million of a round aiming to raise up to $83.85 million in fresh capital for the company. Rigetti Computing disclosed in its filing that the total amount raised and the total offering amount includes approximately $23.85 million1 from the conversion of convertible securities into equity in the company.

The filing states that, so far, 65 investors contributed capital to the round, and that the company received its first capital commitment for the round on Feb. 18, 2020.

, an investor with , is a new addition to the company’s board. It’s typical for lead investors to take a board seat following a deal, so it’s likely that Bessemer is the lead investor in Rigetti’s latest round.

According to Crunchbase data, the company has in prior funding. Rigetti’s last round was closed in November 2017.

Depending on whether the convertible securities mentioned in today’s filing were previously reported, the company has now raised between $166.7 million and $190.5 million, and it is authorized to raise $12.8 million more in this offering.

The company’s valuation and information about which investors participated in the deal have not been disclosed at this time. Previously disclosed the likes of , , , , and , among others.

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