Spain’s quantum software startup Multiverse Computing has secured $215 million in Series B funding, the company told Crunchbase News.
Of the $215 million in funding, $170 million was in the form of equity and $45 million in “grants and partnerships,” according to Enrique Lizaso Olmos, founder and CEO of Multiverse Computing.
He declined to divulge valuation, but sources say San Sebastian-based Multiverse is now valued at over $500 million, which would be “a 5x jump” from its $108 million valuation following its Series A round in March 2024. In total, it has raised about $250 million since its 2019 inception.
Bullhound Capital led the Series B financing, which included participation from HP Tech Ventures, Forgepoint Capital International, CDP Venture Capital and Toshiba, among others.
Multiverse Computing was initially founded to develop quantum computing solutions for complex, real-world problems in finance, energy and manufacturing. In 2023, it discovered its quantum expertise could be applied to the artificial intelligence sector. So the company developed CompactifAI, its proprietary AI compressor.
“Currently, cost and performance are seen as tradeoffs in AI. Bigger models are more powerful but more expensive to run; smaller models are cheaper but the results are less precise,” said Olmos. “CompactifAI overturns this dilemma because it’s able to shrink a large language model without compromising on performance — making it more energy-efficient, affordable and viable for edge devices like smartphones and drones.”
He further claims that CompactifAI can shrink a model by up to 95% with only a 2%-3% loss in accuracy. Multiverse rolled out the technology to initial customers in 2024. Its goal is that widespread adoption will help address “the massive costs” prohibiting the rollout of large language models.
Olmos declined to reveal revenue figures, sharing only that the company has “been more than doubling” its revenue each year. Presently, Multiverse has about 160 employees.
Multiverse Computing currently serves over 100 customers globally, including Iberdrola, Bosch and the Bank of Canada. Currently, its primary revenue generator is fees, but it recently announced a new partnership with AWS to host its API, which Olmos said will add a revenue line by token.
‘Vast’ opportunities
Per Roman, co-founder and managing partner at Bullhound Capital, told Crunchbase News that CompactifAI opens up “vast” opportunities.
“Some of their work has brought their most highly compressed models to the edge, and through partnering with a range of firms they will turbocharge the proliferation of local LLMs into a host of devices: from cars and laptops, to IoTs and satellites,” he said.
Roman also believes Multiverse’s traction with hyperscalers is also significant.
“The decrease in inference costs, lower latency and reduced power consumption that their compressed models offer will form part of these cloud providers go-to-market strategies,” he said. “The reduced cost per token will help increase overall compute usage, while facilitating doing more with less and potentially addressing sovereign or private cloud rollouts.”
Last year set a new high for venture dollars invested into quantum — a level of computing much faster and superior to traditional computers that can perform many complex calculations simultaneously.
In 2024, venture capital-backed quantum startups raised $1.9 billion in 62 rounds, according to Crunchbase data. The dollar figure is a 138% jump from the $789 million raised in 67 rounds in 2023.
Related Crunchbase list:
Related reading:
Illustration: Dom Guzman
Stay up to date with recent funding rounds, acquisitions, and more with the
Crunchbase Daily.