With a fresh €13.7 million in hand, Algorithmiq is poised to access the inaccessible in the world of drug discovery and development

Finland’s quantum-computing-based software developer Algorithmiq has raised €13.7 million in a Series A funding round. Developing noise-resilient quantum algorithms specifically attuned to the drug discovery and development market, Algorithmiq says that it will use the funding to further advance its collaborations with pharmaceutical companies around the globe. Ultimately, the company is honing in on delivering a proof-of-concept that will make for "a useful quantum advantage".

The Series A round was led by Inventure VC, with Tesi, the state-owned Finnish investment fund, Presidio Ventures, Thames Trust, and undisclosed existing backers. 

Algorithmiq’s $4 million seed round was provided by Tiger Global, K5 Global, Jorma Ollila (Nokia/Shell), Haakon Overli (Dawn Capital), Thames Trust (Lord Jim O’Neill), David Helgason (Foobar/Unity3D), Feroz Dewan (Arena Holdings), Keenan Rice (Tokyo Black/LookerGoogle/Firebolt) and additional undisclosed European and U.S. angel investors and entrepreneurs.

Identified by McKinsey as one of the first, near-world applications of the power of quantum computing, the drug discovery and development industry has been quite keen to get involved with a project that can shave years and hundreds of millions of dollars off the time it takes to go from potential to pocket.

However, for as pretty as they look, a quantum computer without a set of instructions as to what to do is just that. Where Algorithmiq’s algorithms come into play is by offering a method of extracting information from quantum devices and interfacing with hardware to perform quantum chemistry simulations. 

But if you take the word quantum out of the above statement, you’ll be forgiven for thinking that this seems like pretty much standard operating procedure. The difference is that upon reaching its full potential, the problems that Algorithmiq is working on accessing and solving are, at present, simply not possible. At all.

“The investment is a critical part of the journey and builds on everything that has been achieved in the last year in terms of our close relationship with IBM,” said the company’s co-founder and CEO Sabrina Maniscalco. “The breakthrough of IBM’s Eagle quantum processor outperforming a supercomputer this month is just the start. With Algorithmiq’s software and IBM’s hardware, a useful quantum advantage is coming sooner than many think.” 

Sabrina joined us on stage this past May in Brussels at the Tech.eu Summit.