QubitWorks Ltd

What we do

QubitWorks develops photonic quantum computing hardware, building the integrated single-photon sources, switches and detectors that a measurement-based photonic quantum computer requires. Rather than pursue a full-stack machine, the company's near-term business is supplying these subsystems to national laboratories, quantum computing companies and research groups who need components that are better than what they can build in-house and are available on a delivery schedule they can plan around.

Market and customers

The quantum sector's component supply chain is immature relative to the capital flowing into systems, and the bottleneck for photonic approaches specifically is source brightness and indistinguishability at telecom wavelengths. Our customers are the organisations building machines, plus a growing set of quantum networking and sensing programmes that need the same components for different reasons. Public funding underwrites much of the demand, which makes procurement timelines predictable if slow, and makes national programme relationships strategically important.

Traction

The company has shipped 40 source modules to fourteen customers across the UK, Europe and North America, and holds framework agreements with two national quantum programmes. Revenue is currently from hardware sales and funded development contracts rather than from a repeatable product line, and the company is pre-revenue against its longer-term systems ambition. Source indistinguishability of 97% at 1550 nm is, to our knowledge, the best commercially available at this wavelength.

Team and investors

The company spun out of the University of St Andrews and employs 29 people, three quarters of them in research and engineering, operating from a cleanroom facility shared with the university. The leadership team combines the founding physicist with a chief operating officer from a photonics manufacturing background. Existing investors include two deeptech specialist funds and the National Security Strategic Investment Fund.

Current raise

We are raising £6M in a Series A to industrialise the source module for volume manufacture, extend the product line to fast optical switching, and fund the multi-year development programme towards a fault-tolerant demonstrator.