Quantum Computing Software and Multi-Vendor Cloud Access Ecosystem

This article will help you learn a portion of the quantum computing ecosystem, the software platform and tool providers, and the firms that offer multi-vendor cloud access to quantum computing hardware providers. Helpful if you want to to decide whether to invest your time or resources into quantum computing, and is meant to complement our hardware article.

We just completed our update of the full quantum computing provider marketplace (02/27/2020 update of original 11/04/2019 report). We published the full report here on our website and maintain a YouTube playlist of videos where we walk through it. Access is free.

So, who are the main software platform and tools providers? These are firms that do not have significant hardware or cloud access businesses, so these are ‘pure play’ in the space.

We first learned about 1QBit when they worked with Accenture and Biogen to create a quantum chemistry application. They focus with Microsoft and the chemicals and materials sciences use cases.

ISARA is a firm that focuses on providing software and consulting services to help clients secure their mission critical systems from the future threats of quantum computing against our public key encryption. We met them in a recent conference and understand they are focused on Post Quantum Cryptography.

We know that Q-CTRL and Quantum Benchmark Inc. are both active in helping quantum computing hardware manufacturers improve and scale their offerings. These firms have deep expertise in quantum computing that scales with their extensive academic and scientific experience.

Project Q offers offers a scalable quantum simulator.

Strangeworks is focused on helping application developers come up to speed on quantum computing and to build better software. Riverlane has a public presence in connecting the quantum computing community.

All of the pure-play quantum software providers are small firms that are either VC funded, spun-out from larger institutions, or are privately funded. We see low-end funding at the $2.7 or $4M range, with a high of $45M in Series B funding.

And who are the multi-vendor providers to access quantum computers via the cloud? These are three firms that do not produce quantum computers themselves, but focus on making other firm’s systems available.

Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure Quantum have announced their offerings most recently, and offer a full set of services to help clients make use of quantum computing, in addition to platform access. Microsoft is also researching their own hardware option using a new, largely theoretical type of quantum bit (or qubit).

QC-Ware offers consulting, software, and a platform to help corporate enterprise clients access and make use of quantum computers through their capabilities and expertise.

We have had access to all of these firms in support of our business, and most recently in regards to our grant application with the US National Science Foundation.

Thank you for reading.

For more information, please contact the author Jeffrey Cohen at Chicago Quantum, a division of US Advanced Computing Infrastructure, Inc. We help clients achieve quantum advantage by creating their own quantum computing use case.

Conflict of Interest Statement: We receive no compensation for writing this report or article, except for the compensation we receive from Medium.