25 Oct 2021

Quantum is moving from research to scale up businesses

Corporate engagement and Corporate Venture Capital is bridging the gap to scale Quantum says Andrew Gaule CEO Aimava as part of techUK's Quantum Commercialisation Week. #QuantumFuture

We have seen over many years waves of new technology which are impacting business models and creating what we term Innovative New Value Chains. Examples include the dot com first wave of internet creating online retail, and efficient supply chains. We have also seen mobile devices creating new mobile services, Internet of Things (IoT) impacting health care, Artificial Intelligence (AI), New Electric Vehicles (NEV) and many more changing industries. There has been the rise of new ventures dominating the new value chains and these include Alibaba, Alphabet / Google, Amazon, Apple, NVIDIA, Tencent, Tesla and many more that are larger than the incumbents.

Corporate Investment and Commercialisation

Aimava have explored the hypothesis that Quantum has reached the point where it is now going through the phases of scaling with corporate investment and commercialisation.

Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) is corporates investing minority stakes in start up ventures. These can have the purpose of the exploring ‘frontier’ technologies and business models which are outside the scope of corporates’ traditional core business. In the first half of 2021 according to a CB Insights report, CVC investments reached a record $79 billion investment and 2,099 deals. A Silicon Valley Bank survey published in Aug 2021 showed 54% of average CVC check sizes were less than $5m and 74% of investment were in seed and early stage investments’.

An example is MSD (Merck) Global Health Innovation Fund and Prem Tumkosit who spoke at the Aimava Quantum Future Programme about the reasoning for investing in Zapata Computing. Quantum was one of the key areas which MSD GHI Fund wanted to explore from 2019. They invested to gain insights on Quantum applications and workflows plus it gave the opportunity to share with the venture understanding on how the new tech can impact the development and use of new health and pharmaceuticals.

Quantum Ventures scaling

In 2020 we have seen more forward thinking strategic investors being involved as they can see it will be impacting their businesses. This has also built hype in 2020 / 21 and investment has risen from millions to tens of millions as understanding and strategies are progressing. We have seen this evolution in other technologies like Electric Vehicles where we first saw tentative investments and installing charging sockets at petrol stations to now large scale industry investment and change. There are other examples in tech and business model such as Internet of Things in applications such as industrial, health and consumer solutions.

Quantum has reached the stage of development of trials and investment in the potential solutions to major business and society challenges. Investment is growing from strategic corporate venture units. Quantum ventures need to understand and engage with corporates and their venture units.

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Rory Daniels

Senior Programme Manager, Emerging Technologies

Rory joined techUK in June 2023 after three years in the Civil Service on its Fast Stream leadership development programme.

During this time, Rory worked on the Government's response to Covid-19 (NHS Test & Trace), school funding strategy (Department for Education) and international climate and nature policy (Cabinet Office). He also tackled the social care crisis whilst on secondment to techUK's Health and Social Care programme in 2022.

Before this, Rory worked in the House of Commons and House of Lords alongside completing degrees in Political Economy and Global Politics.

Today, Rory leads techUK's emerging technologies activity across everything from immersive, web3, AI and robotics to space, gaming & metaverse.

This involves co-running techUK's flagship Innovation campaign, managing four series (including the 'Meet the Innovators' interview series), and launching 4-6-month 'sprint campaigns' on transformative technologies and sectors.

Email:: [email protected]
LinkedIn:: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rorydaniels28/

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Laura Foster

Associate Director - Technology and Innovation, techUK

Laura is techUK’s Associate Director for Technology and Innovation.

She supports the application and expansion of emerging technologies, including Quantum Computing, High-Performance Computing, AR/VR/XR and Edge technologies, across the UK. As part of this, she works alongside techUK members and UK Government to champion long-term and sustainable innovation policy that will ensure the UK is a pioneer in science and technology

Before joining techUK, Laura worked internationally as a conference researcher and producer covering enterprise adoption of emerging technologies. This included being part of the strategic team at London Tech Week.

Laura has a degree in History (BA Hons) from Durham University, focussing on regional social history. Outside of work she loves reading, travelling and supporting rugby team St. Helens, where she is from.

Email:: [email protected]
LinkedIn:: www.linkedin.com/in/lauraalicefoster

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Elis Thomas

Programme Manager, Tech and Innovation, techUK

Elis joined techUK in December 2023 as a Programme Manager for Tech and Innovation, focusing on AI, Semiconductors and Digital ID.

He previously worked at an advocacy group for tech startups, with a regional focus on Wales. This involved policy research on innovation, skills and access to finance.

Elis has a Degree in History, and a Masters in Politics and International Relations from the University of Winchester, with a focus on the digitalisation and gamification of armed conflicts.