Quantum Meets 2024 Plenary PART 3D INSIGHTS
Next on the programme, “Maximizing investment potential for European Quantum scale-ups,” featured an overview of investment opportunities for European quantum scale-ups that are now reaching maturity. The panel included:
Olivier Tonneau- Quantonation
Anca Albu- QAI Ventures
Ton van ‘t Noordende- QDNL Participations
Frank Dekker- APG
THE QUANTUM VALLEY INVESTMENT LANDSCAPE
The investment panel opened up by referring to the 6th November 2023 Forbes article – “Who is investing in the $850 billion quantum tech market and why?” by SUSAN GALER, with the publication declaring that Quantum computing offers the “most promising advancements set to disrupt business and industries in the coming years.” The Forbes article uncovers the thoughts of Olivier Tonneau, partner at VC firm Quantonation, who declared that “some researchers expected quantum computing to create $850B in market value by 2040.” Tonneau further hailed the rapid increase in Quantum use cases as wider adoption of the technology is set to become a reality.
Ton van ‘t Noordende, General Partner of QDNL Participations added that greater emphasis would need to be earmarked towards European research partnerships and building a strong political, finance driven centre for improved Quantum infrastructure. Exploring QKD scenarios in this instance is key as are the standardization and certification of QKD systems, to test, validate and benchmark accordingly.
To date, the QDNL PARTICIPATIONS fund totalling €15M aims to provide the “bridge between the grant-giving phase of quantum research and the ‘patient capital’ phase of venture investment, by offering funding and commercial support to the next generation of quantum founders.” As a specialist VC fund, early stage quantum technology companies can take advantage of QDNL-P’s investment expertise and support in quantum computing, sensing, communication and enabling technologies.
van ‘t Noordende’s recent win as General Partner at QDNL PARTICIPATIONS includes the success of portfolio company QBLOX under his charge who he announced more recently on June 28th 2024 following the Quantum Meets 2024 summit, that QBLOX had received SERIES A funding of $26 million. This investment was secured one year after said start up raised their first ever institutional investment from the QDNL PARTICIPATIONS fund. The $26 million funding round represents one of the biggest SERIES A investments worldwide for quantum in 2024 and was led by Quantonation, the Invest-NL, Deep Tech Fund, alongside QDNL Participations (QDNL-P) and the European Innovation Council.
Olivier Tonneau of early stage VC fund Quantonation contributed further to the “Maximizing investment potential for European Quantum scale-ups” session by highlighting his keen focus on, “Diversity, during the exploratory phase of product development, as the Quantum community continues to seek collaborative investment routes to raise awareness of the potential of Quantum without over-promising.” He also emphasized the importance of creating the best environment and opportunities for perfect quantum product market fit parameters.
Frank Dekker, Expert Portfolio Manager at APG Asset Management and Telecom, Media and Technology investor, highlighted Quantum technology’s “Massive impact on society” and best practices for investment in hardware to reflect income generating outputs similar to technology stars such as Nvidia.
Dekker further elaborated on the “Communication funnel potential,” closing the gaps between academia and industry who are often speaking “different languages.” Frank Dekker also sought to understand from an investment point of view what the “core scientific message” is for quantum with other factors such as the quality of management on board, inner energy, proactive or reactive styles and transparency key factors that influence his investment decision making. Trust, trust, trust, track record of deliverables with Founders saying what they do and doing what they say are paramount factors that impact the likelihood Dekker will make one business referral over another.
Anca Albu of QAI Ventures communicated that the Swiss VC fund also with offices in Canada is dedicated to Quantum start-ups worldwide, whilst Frank Dekker of APG Asset Management, the fourth largest venture fund, provided invaluable insight into how he projected the quantum industry could develop. APG Asset Management is one of the largest pension investors in the world managing in excess of over 521 billion EUROS.
Olivier Tonneau concluded the session expressing Quantonation’s continued commitment to Quantum as the early-stage Quantum Venture Capital fund gathers momentum. He indicated further that the fund is “dedicated to Deep Physics start-ups with a focus on the emerging and disruptive field of Quantum Technologies.” Quantonation is currently headquartered in Paris, France with offices also in Boston, USA and confirmed £170m in funds has already been invested in quantum start-ups to date.