Israeli quantum startup Qedma just raised $26 million, with IBM joining in

Qedma’s team (minus remote team members) | Image Credits:Eyal Toueg for Qedma

Despite their imposing presence, quantum computers are delicate beasts, and their errors are among the main bottlenecks that the quantum computing community is actively working to address. Failing this, promising applications in finance, drug discovery, and materials science may never become real.

That’s the reason why Google touted the error correction capacities of its latest quantum computing chip, Willow. And IBM is both working on delivering its own “fault-tolerant” quantum computer by 2029 and collaborating with partners like Qedma, an Israeli startup in which it also invested, as TechCrunch learned exclusively.

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While most efforts focus on hardware, Qedma specializes in error mitigation software. Its main piece of software, QESEM, or quantum error suppression and error mitigation, analyzes noise patterns to suppress some classes of errors while the algorithm is running and mitigate others in post-processing.

Qedma’s co-founder and chief scientific officer, Professor Dorit Aharonov, once described as a member of “quantum royalty” for her and her father’s contributions to the field, said this enables quantum circuits up to 1,000 times larger to run accurately on today’s hardware, without waiting for further advancements on error correction at the computer level.

IBM itself does both quantum hardware and software, and some of its partners, like French startup Pasqal, also develop their own hardware. But it sees value as well in partnering with companies more narrowly focusing on the software layer, like Qedma and Tiger Global-backed Finnish startup Algorithmiq, its VP of Quantum, Jay Gambetta, told TechCrunch.

That’s because IBM thinks driving quantum further requires a community effort. “If we all work together, I do think it’s possible that we will get scientific accepted definitions of quantum advantage in the near future, and I hope that we can then turn them into more applied use cases that will grow the industry,” Gambetta said.

“Quantum advantage” usually refers to demonstrating the usefulness of quantum over classical computers. “But useful is a very subjective term,” Gambetta said. In all likelihood, it will first apply to an academic problem, not a practical one. In this context, it may take more than one attempt to build consensus that it’s not just another artificial or overly constrained scenario.

Still, having a quantum computer execute a program that a classical computer can’t simulate with the same accuracy would be an important step for the industry — and Qedma claims it is getting closer. “It’s possible that already within this year, we’ll be able to demonstrate with confidence that the quantum advantage is here,” CEO and co-founder Asif Sinay said.

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