Quantum startup jags $2 million pre-Seed round to team up with PsiQuantum

A quantum startup cofounded by three former PhD students just nine months ago has raised $2 million in a pre-Seed round to develop faster and cheaper fault-tolerant architectures for quantum computing.

The raise for Iceberg Quantum was led by Blackbird, supported by UK-based LocalGlobe.

CEO Dr Felix Thomsen cofounded the Sydney startup with Larry Cohen, and Sam Smith in July 2024. They also took part in Blackbird’s Foundry program last year.

The trio completed their doctorates at University of Sydney under Prof. Stephen Bartlett, who is an advisor to Iceberg. During his research, Cohen developed the first general-purpose scheme for performing logic gates with quantum LDPC (low-density parity-check) codes, which reduces the amount of hardware required. LDPC codes are designed to enhance the robustness of quantum computers against noise by using improved error correction techniques.

Iceberg Quantum has also teamed up with PsiQuantum, the Blackbird-backed US company setting up in Brisbane thanks to $940 million in financial support from the Queensland and Australian governments, although the state’s investment is currently under review by the recently elected LNP government.

PsiQuantum is hoping to build the world’s first utility-scale quantum computer in Brisbane by 2027.

The pre-Seed funding will be used to design LDPC-based architectures that make fault-tolerant quantum computing possible for a lower cost, for use in PsiQuantum’s photonic platform.

Thomsen said Iceberg Quantum is designing the next generation of fault-tolerant quantum architectures to accelerate the advent of useful quantum computing.

“Quantum computing has seen some exciting progress recently, but there’s still a lot of work to do to realise the potential of this technology,” he said.

“We believe these LDPC-based fault-tolerant architectures are the key to making useful quantum computing practical—with far less overhead and much sooner than otherwise possible.”

Blackbird partner Michael Tolo said: “The technical progress that Felix, Larry and Sam have made over the last six months shows us that their approach could accelerate the timeline to useful quantum computing and push these systems to perform more valuable tasks, sooner.”