French quantum computing startup Alice & Bob has raised €100 million ($104m) in a Series B funding round.

The company said the funding would help support its aim of building the “world’s first useful quantum computer” by 2030.

The round was led by Future French Champions (FFC), AXA Venture Partners, and Bpifrance, with Series A investors Elaia Partners, Breega, and Supernova Invest also participating in the fundraising, alongside the European Innovation Council.

The FFC is a partnership between Qatar Investment Authority and Bpifrance – France’s public investment bank. Alice & Bob previously received a €16.5 million ($17.8m) innovation grant from Bpifrance in March 2024.

Founded in 2020, Alice & Bob has already raised €130 million ($135m) to develop a fault-tolerant quantum processor.

The company claims its superconducting ‘cat qubits’ are protected from bit-flip errors by design, meaning additional error-correcting qubits are only needed to tackle the remaining phase-flip errors.

Alice & Bob says it is the only company developing quantum computers exclusively with this type of qubit, and that its approach makes it possible to create fault-tolerant computers using far fewer qubits.

“Having established performance records with our cat qubits, Alice & Bob now enters a new phase focused on building a quantum computer that can deliver valuable results,” said Théau Peronnin, CEO of Alice & Bob. “Cat qubits are unique, as they make scaling quantum computers practical: where conventional approaches would require millions of qubits, we would need only thousands.”