Agnostiq secures $2.4 million CAD to accelerate development of quantum computing software
Summary
For Differential and Boost, it was their second investment in the Toronto startup, as they previously provided the majority of Agnostiq’s $1 million CAD ($830,000 USD) pre-seed round. In an interview, Elliot MacGowan, Agnostiq’s co-founder and COO, told BetaKit the company decided to raise the round after gaining some product traction and identifying a market opportunity. Now, fresh funding in hand, Agnostiq aims to help more enterprise clients in the financial services sector easily and securely build quantum computing into their workflows. “So, what we’re doing is essentially providing them with these applications, almost as ‘quantum computing-as-a-service,’ so that they can easily just plug and play into existing workflows and use them at this very abstracted level.” The startup plans to use the new capital to grow its team by hiring more expert talent, which MacGowan referred to as “probably the most constrained resource right now in quantum, PhDs mainly.” Agnostiq currently has 10 employees, and the COO said that the company will be up to 12 by the end of the month. With regard to the current state of quantum computing, the COO said, “I would say in the past two years, I’ve seen a massive evolution, both on the hardware side… but also on the algorithmic side.” “It’s still early, but it’s at the point where it’s becoming more commercially viable,” MacGowan added.