Waterloo quantum startup gains momentum
- QuantumCore, a University of Waterloo spinout from the Institute for Quantum Computing, said April 24 it has raised $10.7 million and reached a public listing a little over six months after launch. - The company says its core product is an amplifier for superconducting quantum chips, meant to move faint readout signals from near absolute zero hardware up to room-temperature electronics. - The speed of the raise and listing adds to Waterloo’s quantum cluster, which local boosters say includes 20-plus quantum companies and 380-plus researchers. (waterlooedc.ca)
QuantumCore, a University of Waterloo quantum startup, said it has raised $10.7 million and gone public a little more than six months after launching. (uwaterloo.ca) The company was co-founded by Christopher Wilson, a University of Waterloo electrical and computer engineering professor, and chief executive Eugene Profis. It was listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange earlier in April 2026. (uwaterloo.ca 1) (uwaterloo.ca 2) QuantumCore said $9 million came from two private funding rounds since October 2025, and another $1.7 million came through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Alliance Grant program. Canaccord Genuity and PowerOne Capital Markets worked on the placements. (uwaterloo.ca) The hardware problem it is chasing is basic to quantum computers: quantum chips run near absolute zero, but the rest of the world does not. QuantumCore is building an amplifier meant to boost weak readout signals from superconducting chips so they can reach room-temperature electronics. (uwaterloo.ca 1) (uwaterloo.ca 2) Wilson said the product is aimed at quantum computing systems expected to scale into the thousands of qubits in the next few years. The company tied its urgency to recent announcements from Google Quantum AI Labs. (uwaterloo.ca) The startup has hired five full-time technical staff and opened an office and lab in uptown Waterloo. It also uses the University of Waterloo’s Quantum Nano Fabrication and Characterization Facility. (uwaterloo.ca) The story lands in a region that has spent years trying to turn quantum research into companies. Waterloo Economic Development says the area has more than 20 quantum companies and more than 380 researchers, alongside the Institute for Quantum Computing and Perimeter Institute. (waterlooedc.ca) The University of Waterloo’s broader startup machine is also part of the backdrop. Velocity, the university-linked incubator, says it has helped founders of more than 500 startups build a collective enterprise value of $40 billion since 2008. (velocityincubator.com) For Waterloo, QuantumCore’s pitch is not a full quantum computer but a component inside one. The bet is that selling picks and shovels for superconducting quantum machines may reach the market faster than building the whole mine. (uwaterloo.ca)
