Quantum computing software solutions company Entropica Labs have secured SGD 2.6 Million in seed funding



The round was led by deep tech VC Elev8. Co-investors include SGInnovate, early-stage enterprise and deep tech VC Wavemaker Partners, the Lim Teck Lee Group, Japanese software enterprise TIS Inc, V1 Capital (the seed investment office of Vy Capital) and talent investor Entrepreneur First. They were joined by angel investors Charlie Songhurst (former Microsoft head of Corporate Strategy) and Claus Nehmzow (Chief Innovation Officer at Eastern Pacific Shipping).


Press release from Entropica Labs
May 11th 2020 | 1126 readers

Photo by Peter Nguyen on Unsplash
The funding will primarily help Entropica Labs expand their technical team and the development of Entropica's proprietary software architectures. It will also serve to consolidate the company access to a growing number of quantum computing systems.

Existing quantum processors might have already crossed the line of solving a problem that even the most powerful supercomputers cannot tackle. However, before quantum computing can reach large-scale adoption, users and researchers will require an extensive software layer analogous to the one that exists for conventional computing. 

Entropica is creating the algorithms, software tools, methods and models to make quantum computers useful. This transformation follows a prosaic day-to-day reality: Programming quantum computers at the assembly level while giving feedback to quantum hardware manufacturers and supporting end-users and developers.

Entropica's software roadmap is centred on their Entropy Development Framework. Entropy is designed to enable both expert developers and occasional users to build and experiment with quantum computing workflows. The framework is a collection of software tools offering: extensive benchmarking protocols; the abstraction of user model and workflow deployment; and full integration with a comprehensive range of quantum computing platforms. Entropy includes specific quantum optimisation and machine learning techniques that run on near-term processors. Beyond the short-term era, Entropy's modular design supports the future integration of error-corrected quantum computing architectures.

In this sense, a significant differentiating factor of Entropica is their hardware-driven approach. Since its inception, the company has been collaborating with leading quantum hardware manufacturers including Rigetti Computing, IBM and Microsoft. These partnerships grant Entropica early access to quantum computing resources and platforms for development and testing while ensuring integration of Entropica's software with the leading cloud quantum computing platforms. 

The original founding team has been coding on quantum hardware before Entropica even existed, facing first-hand the challenges of software development for quantum computers. Singapore's Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT) alumni Dr Tommaso Demarie and Dr Ewan Munro founded Entropica in May 2018. They were later joined, in December 2018, by Dr Joaquin Keller, who was the head of a distributed computing research group at Orange in France. Collectively, Entropica's founders have over 30 years of research and work experience in quantum and classical computing technologies.

Entropica is proud to be supported by some of the most visionaries and ambitious investors in Asia. Aditya Mathur, Managing Director at Elev8, said "We are at the cusp of massive gains in technology, powered by quantum computing. Entropica Labs’ talented team is building the operating interface that allows programmers to work efficiently on quantum machines.  We are excited to see the new scalable applications Entopica will unlock – from Artificial Intelligence to statistical modelling." 

Tommaso Demarie, co-founder and CEO of Entropica added: "Quantum technologies are refining the meaning of what computing even means. Every day, I am inspired - and humbled! - to be working with an exceptional team that relentlessly pushes the boundaries of what is possible in quantum computing." This feeling is echoed by Joaquin Keller, co-founder and CCO, "Being part of a growing team living such an adventure is uplifting and exhilarating. There is an endless stream of opportunities and challenges, only matched by human ingenuity in seizing and solving them". Ewan Munro, co-founder and CTO concluded: "It is fascinating to contribute to the initial phases of commercialisation of quantum computing. We look forward to expanding our team and working to make quantum computing as useful and powerful as the hardware allows."

Paul Santos, Managing Partner at Wavemaker Partner, said: "We are rapidly progressing towards a world in which quantum computing is a reality. We are excited to back the Entropica Labs team who have decades of combined relevant, pioneering experience. We recognise the enormous potential of developing software tools that will enable users, for example, to unleash the power of machine learning using quantum computing."

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