At Scout Ventures, we focus on deep tech with deep reach, built by founders with deep expertise and experience. To date, we have made 14 investments from our third fund, in areas ranging from AI and data science to cybersecurity, robotics, advanced materials, space, and quantum technology. Each investment reflects a thoughtful approach to market discovery and associated due diligence and supports our goal of making the world a safer, more accessible, and more sustainable place. In this article, we discuss why we invested in Anametric and Agnostiq, two incredibly promising quantum tech companies.
Given our focus on advanced, frontier technology, we were naturally drawn to the emerging quantum technology space and its potential to generate revolutionary step-changes in various other fields. To develop and refine our initial interest, we undertook several months of research, to include building a detailed landscape map of companies operating in the space, learning key mathematical and quantum mechanical principles that underlie the field, and conducting numerous interviews with researchers, government leaders, and CEOs.
That effort culminated in a comprehensive industry white paper and led us to the hypothesis that the most promising quantum tech startups will produce technologies that:
- Are not dependent on (as-yet-to-be-determined) quantum standards
- Are not reliant on one specific quantum computing platform
- Can be embedded into a range of other technical systems/approaches
- Possess shorter development cycles and faster go-to-market potential
- Are scalable across various industries applications
- Help to reinforce a broader quantum technology ecosystem
- Address the challenges with secure communication in a post-quantum world
Both Anametric and Agnostiq satisfy several of the above bullets, showing strong potential to execute on their longer-term roadmaps and gaining early traction from government and commercial clients. Additionally, both companies are supported by PhD-level experts with a track record of commercial success.
More specifically, Anametric is a hardware company looking to revolutionize secure communications using quantum photonics technology. Their team is developing a chip-level solution that will dramatically enhance security protocols. The patent pending hardware design replaces existing algorithmic approaches (that are subject to various attacks) and will subsequently enable advanced cryptographic and cybersecurity solutions that underlie secure transactions and data transmissions.
Agnostiq is a software quantum company developing software tools and applications that make quantum computers more accessible to enterprise clients through a hardware agnostic platform that interfaces with a host of quantum computing systems. Furthermore, it’s secure, low-code interface provides software tools and libraries for specific applications in finance and machine learning, providing a distinct competitive advantage for early-adopters.
Given our growing conviction in this area, we became one of the early members of the Quantum Economic Development Consortium, a federal and commercial consortium aimed to expand U.S. leadership in global quantum research and development. We’re excited to continue developing partnerships with key stakeholders in the years to come.
