Quanscient, a startup based in Tampere, has successfully raised €3.9 million in a seed round, which was spearheaded by Maki.vc. Additionally, the startup was able to secure €446K in non-equity funding from Business Finland. This includes a quantum research grant as well as an R&D loan. Quanscient has the distinction of being the very first provider of cloud-and-quantum-powered multiphysics simulation software. Their aim is to revolutionize the R&D field by creating precise digital prototypes. With this funding, they will be able to accelerate their product development and pave the way for future expansion.
Quanscient was founded in 2021, but a glaring deficiency in the performance of simulation platforms was already spotted by founders earlier. Dr. Alexandre Halbach, now CTO of the company, had been solving the problem for eight years by developing a performant and modern set of algorithms. The founding team was dedicated to turning this research into a simulation platform. As of now, 17 leading companies use Quanscient’s simulation technology in their research and product development.
Quanscient’s cloud-based simulation technology enables faster product development and speeds up bringing products to market, saving time and costs for innovating companies. Better simulations also help optimize products making them more energy efficient and sustainable.
“With the help of our technology, innovation and product development become more efficient, and products are brought to market faster. For example, simulating superconductors, that are crucial for fusion energy, MRI devices, and high-tech components, is extremely complex. With the existing solutions, it can take up to a month to run a superconductor simulation to provide feedback for product development. Quanscient can do this in a few hours ,” says Quanscient co-founder and CEO Juha Riippi.
In addition to cloud computing simulation, Quanscient is building quantum computing algorithms to accelerate simulations even further. The technology has been successfully piloted with some leading global companies such as Intel.
“Quantum simulations can replace expensive and extremely time-consuming physical testing, such as wind-tunnel testing for airplanes, with simulations. This allows engineers to refine designs using computer-aided design and simulations instead of building expensive prototypes and taking them into wind tunnels for testing,” Riippi tells.
With quantum simulations, Quanscient will respond to a rapidly growing demand for solutions for complex R&D. There’s a significant emergence of new technologies that can significantly benefit from quantum simulations, such as fusion energy and quantum hardware. Furthermore, the complexity of design is growing in many fields, such as aerospace, automotive, and electronics.
“The whole industry is in an interesting phase. For example, the simulation data offers new interesting openings. The data could be used to train machine learning models and thus facilitate product development work with the help of artificial intelligence. Going forward, breakthroughs in new technologies can be made much faster and more cost-efficient,” Riippi continues.
The new funding of €3.9 million will be used to further product development and expansion. The funding round was led by Maki.vc, and it includes €446K of non-equity funding from Business Finland, including a quantum research grant and R&D loan.
“We are thrilled to be supporting the next stage of Quanscient’s journey,” says Ilkka Kivimäki, founding partner at Maki.vc. “Quanscient’s product delivers unforeseen runtime speed, scale, and accuracy for simulations. The product enables flexibility by allowing the users to combine any physics in a single simulation, providing unforeseen accuracy and usability when solving multiphysics problems. We were impressed by Quanscient’s strong team with experience in quantum computing, software, and research, and look forward to helping them scale the business further,” Kivimäki continues.
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