UK quantum computing firm Nu Quantum has secured $60 million in new investment.

The company this week closed its oversubscribed Series A funding round led by National Grid Partners, including participation from Gresham House Ventures and Morpheus Ventures.

Nu said the round also featured continued support from existing investors Amadeus Capital Partners, IQ Capital, Ahren Capital, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, East Innovate, NSSIF, and Sumitomo (Presidio Ventures).

The company claimed it is the largest financing round ever raised by a pure-play quantum networking company, and the largest quantum Series A in the UK to date.

Founded in 2018 as a spin-out of the University of Cambridge, Nu Quantum is looking to develop a photonic optical switching technology that interconnects quantum processors into a more powerful distributed quantum computer. The company has developed 19-inch rack-mount Quantum Networking Units (QNUs).

The funding will be used accelerate Nu Quantum’s goal to reach fault tolerance by interconnecting quantum processors into a more powerful distributed quantum computer, and go towards the firm’s next phase of product development and deployment.

Dr. Carmen Palacios-Berraquero, founder and CEO of Nu Quantum, said: “When we launched seven years ago, very few were thinking about networked or distributed quantum computing as a strategy for scaling, but we saw it as one of the most urgent and challenging outstanding problems in the industry, and set out to solve it. We’ve made great strides in shaping the market and the technology since then.

“As we’ve grown, I’m proud we have created a culture defined by fearless innovation, and fuelled by collaboration and diversity under a shared mission to accelerate quantum computing for good. This investment validates our vision and the maturity of our solution as the path to scaling. I’d like to warmly thank the Nu Quantum team for their achievements, and our investors for their support.”

National Grid Partners is the venture investment and innovation arm of UK energy firm National Grid. Gresham House Ventures is part of Gresham House, a specialist alternative asset management group. Founded in 2016, Morpheus Ventures is a California-based early-stage investment firm.

Steve Smith, chief strategy and regulation officer of National Grid and president of National Grid Partners, said: “We are closer to quantum computing having an impact on businesses and lives than many people think. Nu Quantum is at the forefront of bringing this powerful technology closer to market and using it to solve real-world challenges today.”