Six ANZ startups that raised $525 million this week

Detailed summary

Keep reading to learn about quantum giant Q-CTRL, along with Alta, Vudoo, Refilled, Provectus Algae, and Aimer Farming. The post Six ANZ startups that raised $525 million this…

Any new Australian unicorn is worth writing about, but this week’s startup funding wrap is something special.

Keep reading to learn about quantum giant Q-CTRL, along with Alta, Vudoo, Refilled, Provectus Algae, and Aimer Farming.

Q-CTRL has raised US$290 million (AU$425 million) in a Series C that makes the Sydney quantum software scaleup the country’s first quantum unicorn, valued at more than US$1 billion (AU$1.47 billion).

The round was led by existing backer Salesforce Ventures, with the federal government’s National Reconstruction Fund (NRF) chipping in $70 million, alongside chipmaker AMD’s venture arm, Jared Kushner’s PE firm Affinity Partners, and SPARX Asset Management.

Other returning investors include Alpha Edison, Alumni Ventures, Bullhound Capital, DCVC, In-Q-Tel, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Main Sequence, Ridgeline, Salus Ventures, and Square Peg.

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Q-CTRL says it expanded the round twice to meet investor demand, leading to a record private raise for a quantum software business.

The funds will be used to help it sell its computing software to finance and energy companies, and get its navigation tech into more aircraft and autonomous vehicles.

Q-CTRL was founded in 2017 by University of Sydney quantum physicist Michael Biercuk to tackle a core problem with quantum computers: they’re so sensitive to interference that errors can creep into a calculation before it finishes.

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