Haiqu secures £8m to launch hardware-aware OS to cut quantum compute costs
This article covers Haiqu, a quantum startup, which has raised £8m in a growth funding round led by Primary Venture Partners to accelerate the launch of an operating system for quantum applications. The funding aims to reduce the computational cost of running near-term quantum workloads, supporting researchers and startups and enabling experimentation in sectors such as finance, healthcare and life sciences.
Haiqu, a quantum startup, has raised £8 million in a growth funding round led by Primary Venture Partners to speed up the launch of an operating system for quantum applications. The cash is intended to reduce the computational cost of running near-term quantum workloads, a practical issue that limits how quickly researchers and companies can experiment and validate use cases.
Why it matters
Quantum hardware remains noisy and expensive to access, which constrains empirical testing and slows development of real-world applications. Software that reduces the resources needed to run quantum programs can broaden who can experiment and where — moving work off idealised simulations and onto actual devices. That matters for sectors such as finance, healthcare, aviation and life sciences where early demonstrations could justify further investment.
Inside the product
Haiqu builds a hardware-aware quantum software stack designed to make larger and more complex applications feasible on current devices. The company says its approach reduces resource requirements so teams can run near-term quantum applications at lower cost rather than waiting for fully fault-tolerant qubits.
Among the capabilities highlighted are anomaly detection deployments that were affirmed by IBM and the Bank of Montreal. Haiqu also reports running quantum machine learning workloads at scale over high-dimensional data and operates an early access programme for researchers. The company intends to use the funding to accelerate the launch of its operating system for quantum applications and to expand its global team; it recently hired Antonio Mei, formerly a principal technical product manager at Microsoft Quantum, as lead product manager for the OS launch.
Who are the investors?
The round was led by Primary Venture Partners. Participating investors include Qudit Investments led by John Donovan, Alumni Ventures, Collaborative Fund, Silicon Roundabout Ventures, Angel One Fund, and returning backers Toyota Ventures and Mac Venture Capital.
In the announcement, Brian Schechter, Partner at Primary Venture Partners, said:
Quantum computing must demonstrate commercial advantage over classical compute in some domain in order to scale. The premise underlying our investment in Haiqu is that software is essential to realize this goal. More specifically, quantum hardware needs to operate more noise-resiliently and at greater scale. Haiqu minimizes hardware shortcomings to get the best of what quantum has to offer today and in the many years before we have fully fault-tolerant qubits.
In the announcement, Jim Adler, Partner at Toyota Ventures, said:
It is impressive to see the growth in quantum since we first backed Haiqu nearly three years ago. The industry has gone from simulating toy problems to verifiable quantum advantage on niche scientific problems. The world will soon realise that useful applications will rely on production-ready software systems which Haiqu has quietly been building. They are already running quantum machine learning at scale over high dimensional data. And that is just one application they support. We are excited by their progress.
If you're researching potential backers in this space:
- Explore our list of quantum venture capital firms in the UK
- Browse our directory of quantum angel investors in the UK
Founder perspective
In the announcement, Richard Givhan, Co-founder & CEO at Haiqu, said:
Quantum teams need to make empirical progress on hardware to close the gap toward industrially useful quantum applications. Today, too little experimentation happens because quantum cloud costs are prohibitive and hardware performance remains insufficient. Our goal is to change that overnight with a software system that can run larger applications at a fraction of the cost. We are grateful to have found investors who recognize the ugly truth: middleware isn’t sexy, but it matters.
Givhan’s framing underlines the company’s focus on tooling and middleware rather than hardware — a pragmatic orientation that targets near-term value by improving how existing devices are used.
The bigger picture
The investment signals continued interest in the software layer of the quantum stack. Hardware vendors have made steady progress, but many commercial use cases remain elusive until cost and error rates fall or until software can work around those limits. Middle-tier platforms and operating systems that make quantum workloads more resource efficient could therefore play a pivotal role in moving experiments from labs into industry pilots.
For the UK and Europe, Haiqu’s raise adds to a steady flow of capital into quantum ventures and supporting technologies. As universities, research labs and corporate R&D groups push toward demonstrable advantage, investors and policymakers will watch whether software-first companies can translate experiments into repeatable, industry-relevant outcomes.
They've invested in Haiqu
Get to know these quantum investors
| Investor | Sector | Stage | Activity | Team | Connect |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Primary Venture Partners | 1 investment investment | more info | |||
 Qudit Investments | 1 investment investment | more info | |||
 Alumni Ventures | 9 investments investments | 24 contacts contacts | |||
 Collaborative Fund | 3 investments investments | 14 contacts contacts | |||
 Silicon Roundabout Ventures | 2 investments investments | more info | |||
 Angel One Fund | 1 investment investment | more info | |||
 Toyota Ventures | 3 investments investments | more info | |||
 Mac Venture Capital | 1 investment investment | more info |
Click here for a full list of 7,526+ startup investors in the UK