The Engine, which was publicly announced on October 26, 2016, was built by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).  Prioritizing breakthrough ideas over early profit, The Engine represents an exciting new system for startup support, one that shortens the time from idea to investment, and from investment to impact.  To fuel The Engine, MIT is seeking to attract hundreds of millions of dollars of support and to provide hundreds of thousands of square feet of space for entrepreneurs in Kendall Square and nearby communities, starting with 26,000 square feet in its Central Square headquarters.  The Engine provides a physical space where an idea can begin to take shape. It also streamlines the legal processes and agreements required to get products to market. And it links entrepreneurs to “patient capital” from investors who share their vision of addressing big challenges with big ideas.  The Engine will eventually support up to 60 locally based startups concurrently; these companies will participate in the accelerator for up to 12 months. The Engine will make meaningful investments that will allow participating startups to get off the ground quickly and operate long enough to prove their concepts’ viability. It will also provide business planning, legal, and administrative support.  The Engine will require less equity than is typical, allowing founders to maintain more control over their companies and the ideas they’ve created.  Through the Engine Room, The Engine will provide access to a wide network of lab space, specialized equipment, business guidance, and other resources, at MIT and beyond.

The Engine

Pillar VC partners with unstoppable founders from the moment of inception, providing the first capital. The firm is committed to helping founders grow with their companies, investing in their personal and professional development with connections, coaching, and community. From university spinouts led by first-time founders to serial entrepreneurs, backing the next generation of big, meaningful companies in Boston. Pillar VC is open to high-potential ventures of any type, with the bulk of our portfolio related to machine intelligence, AI, hardware, enterprise software, blockchain, quantum, digital health, and synthetic biology.

Pillar VC

Pitango VC is a venture capital firm focused on health-tech (Pitango Health-tech) and growth (Pitango Growth) investments in startups around the world in domains such as vertical SaaS, digital health, deep tech, fintech and insurance technology, devops, generative AI, Web3, and food tech. With two offices in Israel, Pitango currently manages several venture funds totaling over $2.8 billion in committed capital. It has invested in more than 250 companies.

Pitango VC

Comcast Ventures is the venture capital affiliate of Comcast Corporation and partners with extraordinary entrepreneurs building transformative consumer and enterprise companies.

Comcast Ventures

BASF Venture Capital is the corporate venture capital arm of BASF Group. They invest worldwide in promising young enterprises relevant to BASF’s current and future business fields and also in funds. Besides innovations in the fields of chemistry, new materials and sustainability, their areas of focus include digitization and new business models. They support their portfolio companies through selective interactions with the global research, partnership and customer networks of the BASF Group. They are headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany and have offices in San Francisco, Boston, Shanghai, Sao Paulo, and Tel Aviv.

BASF Venture Capital

Bosch Ventures (Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH) is the corporate venture capital company of the Bosch Group, a leading global supplier of technology and services. Bosch Ventures invests worldwide in innovative start-up companies at all stages of their development. Its investment activities focus on technology companies working in areas of business of current and future relevance for Bosch, above all, automation and electrification, energy efficiency, enabling technologies, and healthcare systems. Bosch Ventures also invests in services and business models as well as new materials that are relevant to the above-mentioned areas of business. Bosch Ventures invests from EUR 500k for a seed funding to more than EUR 15m per company for usually 10% to 25% equity position. Bosch Ventures prefers to syndicate their investments with existing or new investors in the company and can take the lead as necessary.

Bosch Ventures

Prelude Ventures invests in and supports early-stage startups with the greatest potential to mitigate climate change. Our goal is to help build the next generation of category-defining businesses.

Prelude Ventures

CXO Fund is a venture capital firm that invests in Seed/Pre-Series-A stage startups. The CXO Fund's headquarters are in San Jose, California. The firm intends to make investments in the information technology industry.

CXO Fund

The history of ITOCHU Corporation (hereinafter ''ITOCHU'') dates back to 1858 when the Company's founder Chubei Itoh commenced linen trading operations. Since then, ITOCHU has evolved and grown over 150 years into a sogo shosha, engaging in domestic trading, import/export, and overseas trading of various products such as textiles, machinery, information and communications-related products, metals, products related to oil and other energy sources, general merchandise, chemicals, and provisions and food. In addition, ITOCHU has made multifaceted investments in insurance agencies, finance, construction, real estate trading, and warehousing as well as operations and businesses incidental or related to those fields.

ITOCHU Corporation

Merck Global Health Innovation Fund (Merck GHI) is evolving corporate healthcare venture capital globally by utilizing their healthcare ecosystem strategy.  This investment strategy connects innovative companies with complementary technologies to develop integrated healthcare solutions.  Merck GHI has $500M under management and provides growth capital to emerging healthcare technology companies worldwide while leveraging the vast R&D-based, global resources of Merck.  With a vision that data will be the currency in healthcare, GHI invests broadly in digital health.  GHI invests in platform companies with proven technologies or business models where Merck's expertise and perspectives can accelerate revenue growth and enhance value creation.   Since late 2010, Merck GHI has made over 20 investments in Digital Health companies.

Merck Global Health Innovation Fund

Honeywell is a Fortune 100 company that invents and manufactures technologies to address tough challenges linked to global macrotrends such as safety, security, and energy. With approximately 129,000 employees worldwide, including more than 19,000 engineers and scientists, we have an unrelenting focus on quality, delivery, value, and technology in everything we make and do.

Honeywell Ventures

Alumni Ventures Group provides high-quality, diversified venture portfolios to individual investors who previously haven't had access to VC. It helps accredited alums from top entrepreneurial schools invest together in the ventures of fellow alums. The firm backs companies with an alumni connection and an institutional lead investor with expertise in the space. AVG also offers focused funds that allow any accredited investor access to a venture portfolio, diversified by type, sector, stage, and geography. Beth Obermiller, Michael Madden, and Mike Collins co-founded the firm in Manchester, New Hampshire in 2013.

Alumni Ventures

Ahren Innovation Capital is an investment institution that supports transformational companies at the intersection of deep tech and deep science that will penetrate, or create, massive markets.  Ahren is a unique partnership of investment talent and best-in-class commercial scientists whose technologies are today valued in excess of $100BN combined. Ahren believes in taking asymmetric, considered, risk that will deliver superior rewards – capturing a generational opportunity to provide smart capital to deep technology. With a philosophy espousing the importance of relationships and trust, Ahren provides both patient and active capital to exceptional founders and teams, empowering them to succeed.

Ahren Innovation Capital

Merck is a biopharmaceutical company that offers medicines and vaccines for various diseases.  The company is driven by a mission to discover, develop, and provide innovative products and services that save and improve lives around the world. Merck delivers vaccines, medications, and consumer and animal health products that can help millions around the world. Merck was founded in 1891 and is headquartered in Kenilworth, NJ.

Merck

Zapata Computing

Zapata Computing is a quantum software company that offers computing solutions for industrial and commercial use. It provides hardware-agnostic solutions for simulation, optimization, and machine learning applications in chemistry, finance, logistics, pharmaceuticals, engineering, and materials. Zapata Computing is a spun out of Harvard University launched by a group of Harvard scientists, including Alán Aspuru-Guzik. The company was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

<div>Zapata Computing is a quantum software and services company spun out of Harvard University. Its hardware-agnostic software applications target problems such as optimization, artificial intelligence (AI), chemistry, simulation, and modeling across various industries (e.g. finance, materials, pharmaceuticals, and logistics). It has also entered into partnerships with hardware developers Microsoft, IBM, Rigetti, and Honeywell to provide a range of back-end systems where users can experiment with its software.</div>

Quantum information processing is slowly becoming a reality, ushering in a new technological era.

Quantum Computing

<div>
 
 Zapata Computing is a quantum software and services company spun out of Harvard University. Its hardware-agnostic software applications target problems such as optimization, artificial intelligence (AI), chemistry, simulation, and modeling across various industries (e.g. finance, materials, pharmaceuticals, and logistics). It has also entered into partnerships with hardware developers Microsoft, IBM, Rigetti, and Honeywell to provide a range of back-end systems where users can experiment with its software.
 
 
 In April 2020, the company announced an end-to-end platform for quantum-enabled workflows called Orquestra. The platform is a unique solution that translates quantum programs into the necessary hardware back-ends (hardware agnostic), combines algorithms written on different software platforms (software agnostic), and manages transfers from one platform to another&ndash;storing results for later analysis.&nbsp;
 
 
 In June 2021, the company incorporated a new legal entity in the UK to work on government-funded projects and tackle restrictions from export control laws for overseas companies. It currently has offices in Boston and Toronto and also operates in Japan.
 
</div>

<div>
 
 The UK-based Quantum Motion Technologies is engaged in developing quantum computer architectures based on silicon technology, which are compatible with standard silicon processing (CMOS process). The company believes this approach will enable it to create scalable quantum computers with thousands to millions of qubits.
 
</div>

Quantum Motion Technologies

<div>
 
 SeeQC is a quantum hardware startup spun out from Hypres, a leading developer of superconductor integrated circuits. SeeQC is developing a unique digital system-on-a-chip design that integrates classical and quantum circuits into a hybrid system in order to overcome quantum computers&rsquo; current challenges. The company owns and operates a state-of-the-art superconductive chip fabrication facility and provides foundry services for superconducting devices. It also has facilities in London, UK, and Naples, Italy.
 
 
 Through the hybrid approach, SeeQC believes it can reduce the cost of quantum computers by 1/400th, provide greater control, and reduce energy requirements significantly.
 
</div>

SeeQC

<div>
 
 IonQ develops general-purpose quantum computers using trapped-ion technology. Although the company calls itself a full-stack player, its focus has been on developing hardware. In December 2020, it revealed its quantum roadmap that introduced its new metric, &ldquo;algorithmic qubits (AQ),&rdquo; which represents the largest number of qubits that can be deployed while maintaining high performance and considering error correction. Its latest system IonQ Aria achieved 20 AQ, as of May 2023. In terms of physical qubits, IonQ&rsquo;s latest hardware had 32 qubits, which were expected to hold 22 AQs.
 
 
 Founded in 2015, IonQ&rsquo;s main competitive advantage stems from its approach to designing qubits that allow computers to be operated at room temperature with lower error rates.&nbsp;
 
 
 IonQ unveiled the industry&rsquo;s first glass-based trapped ion computing chip called the Reconfigurable Multicore Quantum Architecture (RMQA) technology, in August 2021, which the company believes will significantly expand the longevity of qubits and enable at least triple-digit scalability.&nbsp;
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 The company secured Samsung&rsquo;s first-ever quantum computing investment (co-led by a UAE wealth fund) of USD 55 million in 2019. IonQ believes it can tap into Samsung&rsquo;s expertise in miniaturization to shrink quantum computing components.&nbsp;
 
 
 IonQ secured a strategic partnership with SoftBank Investment Advisers (June 2021) to provide support in deploying the company&rsquo;s quantum systems globally, and with Accenture (September 2021) to accelerate the industrial application of IonQ&rsquo;s quantum systems. It also joined hands with the University of Maryland (UMD) in September 2021 to establish a national quantum lab in Maryland. In October, UMD and IonQ demonstrated a breakthrough cost-effective, error correction approach to enable building a fault-tolerant practical trapped ion-based quantum computer.&nbsp;
 
 
 The company offers access to its quantum computer via all major quantum cloud computing platforms including Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud Marketplace (GCM). It is also integrated with major software development kits (SDK) including IBM Qiskit and Google Cirq. In May 2023, IonQ began offering its IonQ Aria system on Amazon Braket.
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker &ldquo;IONQ,&rdquo; in October 2021 via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger. The IPO raised more than USD 650 million and made IonQ the first publicly traded pure-play quantum computing company. 
 
</div>

IonQ

<div>
 
 Rigetti is an end-to-end provider of general-purpose quantum computers. The company&rsquo;s approach to developing computers is based on superconducting qubit technology, similar to Google and IBM. Since 2017, the company has operated a cloud-based quantum platform that allows developers to either create applications or use Rigetti&rsquo;s virtual machine.&nbsp;
 
 
 Rigetti is well-positioned to compete with incumbents as well as startups because of its advancements in hardware, which is currently used by 14 other companies (mostly other quantum software startups). Rigetti introduced the world&rsquo;s first multi-chip quantum processor, in June 2021, that physically connects multiple chips with their own qubits in a single functional processor, which is expected to improve scalability. It also launched its first commercially available 80-qubit quantum system in February 2022, which exceeds the qubit count of any other startup, but is lower than that of IBM.&nbsp;
 
 
 In June 2022, the company expanded its geographical presence with the launch of its 32-qubit, cloud-based 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11308">
 Aspen system in the UK
 </a>
 market. It also strengthened its position in the software segment via the acquisition of QxBranch (a Washington-based quantum computing software company) in 2019. In December 2023, the company launched its first 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/24731">
 Quantum Processing Unit (QPU)
 </a>
 , Novera, which is based on its fourth-gen Ankaa-class architecture. The price of the QPU starts from USD 900,000.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 In July 2021, the company partnered with Astex Pharmaceuticals to apply quantum technology to drug discovery. This partnership was a stepping stone for Rigetti to commercially apply quantum computing to the pharmaceutical industry. Additionally, as part of an InnovateUK grant, the company partnered with 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11334">
 Riverlane
 </a>
 in June 2022 to explore and develop error correction solutions. In October 2023, the company was awarded with a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/22419">
 (DARPA) 
 </a>
 contract as part of the Imagining Practical Applications for a Quantum Tomorrow (IMPAQT) program to advance quantum algorithms for solving combinatorial optimization problems. In January 2024, the company collaborated with 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/25242">
 Moody&rsquo;s Analytics
 </a>
 to enhance machine-learning methods for the financial sector using quantum computing abilities. In February 2024, Rigetti Computing and Riverlane joined a project led by the 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/27062">
 Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
 </a>
 , a part of the US Department of Energy (DOE), to explore the possibility of integrating a quantum computer and high-performance computing (HPC) systems.
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 Rigetti 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/8880">
 went public
 </a>
 on Nasdaq under the ticker &ldquo;RGTI,&rdquo; in March 2022 via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger. The IPO raised USD 261.8 million and made Rigetti the second publicly traded pure-play quantum computing company, following IonQ. 
 
</div>

Rigetti Computing

<div>
 
 PsiQuantum develops general-purpose quantum computers based on the silicon photonic approach, a relatively new method which is capable of using the existing silicon supply chain of conventional electronics. This will help the company keep production costs low and provide scalability, allowing PsiQuantum to focus on building a commercially viable quantum computer with one million qubits, the company&rsquo;s primary development goal.
 
 
 
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 Working towards its goal, in May 2021 PsiQuantum entered into a partnership with global chip manufacturer 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/2245">
 GlobalFoundries
 </a>
 (GF) to build an integrated, silicon photonics-based quantum system called the &ldquo;Q1 system&rdquo; by manufacturing quantum chips in GF&rsquo;s semiconductor foundry. This partnership also received US federal funding of 
 <a href="https://www.schumer.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/schumer-announces-25-million-for-globalfoundries-and-psiquantum-to-develop-the-next-generation-of-quantum-computers-at-rome-air-force-research-lab-and-malta-campus-fed-funding-will-strengthen-national-security-supercharge-us-technological-competitiveness_ensure-upstate-new-york-continues-to-lead-quantum-technology">
 USD 25 million
 </a>
 in April 2022. The company partnered with Japanese quantum software company 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/7246">
 QunaSys
 </a>
 in December 2021 to research quantum-based industrial chemistry and material science solutions and partnered with the UK-based Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/22518">
 Hartree Centre
 </a>
 in October 2023 to develop Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing (FTQC) applications in the UK.
 
 
 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 Founded in 2016, the company has remained relatively quiet about its silicon photonic approach but gained wider attention after attracting the two largest funding rounds in industry history with GBP 179 (USD 230 million) in 2019 and USD 150 million in April 2020. In July 2021, the company surpassed its own record with a Series D funding round of up to USD 450 million, making PsiQuantum the highest privately funded quantum startup at the time. The proceeds were earmarked for building the 1 million-qubit computer and expanding its team of exper
 
</div>

PsiQuantum

Startups in this space offer solutions for building enterprise-specific applications and automations

Developers of quantum system software such as firmware, operating systems, compilers, qubit control software, etc.

Developers of quantum algorithms and software programs for specific industries such as pharmaceuticals or finance.

Zapata Computing

Quantum Computing

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Recent Updates

D-Wave and Zapata AI partner to develop GenAI and quantum computing applications

Zapata secures Phase II DARPA contract for quantum benchmarking

Zapata Computing to go public via USD 200 million SPAC deal

Rigetti and Zapata join to build first hybrid quantum-classical compilation toolchain

Zapata Computing and University of Hull team up for quantum-assisted space research

Kuano raises USD 1.4 million in seed funding

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