Quantum machine-learning company Rahko has raised £1.3m in seed funding.
Founded last year by Leonard Wossnig, Edward Grant, Miriam Cha and Ian Horobin, the firm is building a ‘quantum discovery’ capability for chemical simulation, which could its investors said could enable ground-breaking advances in batteries, chemicals, advanced materials and drugs.
The round was led by Balderton, with participation from AI Seed and leading angel investors.
It said the funding will help Rahko to grow its team of experts in order to take on bigger and more ambitious work.
It expects to recruit from a sparse set of quantum computing experts from across the globe.
“Most people find quantum computers mysterious and wonder if they are going to save or break the world as we know it,” said Leo Wossnig, CEO of Rahko.
“In reality, quantum computing is going to unlock radical advances in areas of research and technology in which we have found ourselves stuck for some time now.
“Our team is excited to get together every day to work on problems that would have been impossible to solve only a couple of years ago. We are delighted to welcome on board this unique group of investors who truly share our excitement.
With the Rahko quantum machine learning software platform and joint research with some of the world’s largest companies, investors Balderton said Rahko is building an arsenal of tools that may make quantum computers accessible and commercially usable at an accelerated pace, often through the use of hybrid approaches with classical computers.
Earlier this year, Wossnig was the recipient of the 2019 Google Fellowship in Quantum Computing, for his achievement in computer science.
Rahko is one of several startups originating from UCL’s Computer Science programme, supported by Conception X, a venture builder for deep tech start-ups.
Rahko’s angel investors include Charles Songhurst (former Microsoft Head of Corporate Strategy), Tom McInerney (Founder, TGM Ventures), John Spindler (CEO, Capital Enterprise) and James Field (CEO, LabGenius).