Quantum software startup Haiqu Inc. has successfully secured $11 million in funding to expedite the rollout of its innovative operating system tailored for quantum applications. This advanced OS features a hardware-aware quantum software stack designed to execute near-term applications while reducing computational costs by up to 100 times compared to existing technologies.
Founded in 2022 by Richard Givhan, a Stanford-educated engineer, and Mykola Maksymenko, a former researcher at Max Planck Society and Weizmann Institute, Haiqu aims to address the challenges faced by contemporary quantum hardware, enabling practical-scale applications today.
Significantly enhancing middleware capabilities, Haiqu’s software focuses on circuit optimization, error shielding, and algorithmic subroutines such as data loading and software orchestration. The primary objective is to run more complex applications with a fraction of the resource expenditure.
Haiqu is dedicated to making near-term quantum computing commercially viable through its hardware-aware software stack, allowing organizations to leverage current quantum systems for larger and more impactful workloads. The vision is to maximize the utility of existing quantum devices by lowering computational costs, minimizing cloud resource usage, and decreasing the experimental overhead that hampers real-world quantum experiments.
The platform targets practical applications across diverse industries, including finance, healthcare, aviation, and life sciences. “Quantum teams must accelerate hardware progress to advance toward industrially viable applications,” remarked co-founder and CEO Givhan. “Currently, the high costs associated with quantum cloud computing and inadequate hardware performance discourage experimentation. Our software aims to change that paradigm, enabling larger applications at a significantly reduced cost.”
This seed funding round was led by Primary Venture Partners LP, with added contributions from Qudit Investments LP, Alumni Ventures Group, Collaborative Fund LP, Silicon Roundabout Ventures LP, Toyota Ventures, and Mac Venture Capital LP. Brian Schechter, a partner at Primary Venture Partners, emphasized, “For quantum computing to scale, it must exhibit a commercial advantage over classical computing. Our investment in Haiqu stems from the belief that software is crucial for achieving this goal.”
Haiqu plans to utilize the new funding to expand its global team, notably with the recent onboarding of Antonio Mei, former principal technical product manager at Microsoft Quantum, who will spearhead the launch of Haiqu’s operating system.
