$10M Funding Boosts Quantum Software for Chemistry, Pharma
Quantum software startup Qunova has received $10 million in Series A funding to accelerate growth and expand its technology team.
The funding attracted investors including GS Ventures, Korea Development Bank, GU Equity Partners, Company K, Quantum Ventures Korea, JB Investment, CKD Venture Capital and Daesung Venture Capital.
Quonova is focused on bringing quantum benefits to the fields of chemical, pharmaceutical and industrial engineering. Its flagship product, the Handover Iteration Variational Quantum Eigensolver algorithm, has shown promising results across quantum computing platforms.
The hardware-agnostic algorithm approach puts the company in a position to bring practical quantum benefits in the near future, especially in chemistry, drug discovery and materials science applications.
“Qunova is now entering the next phase of its evolution. With the support of these strategic investors, we will use additional capital to expand our world-class team of developers, scientists and engineers. This will help make our path to quantum profitability even shorter,” said Qunova founder and CEO Kevin June-Koo Rhee in the announcement.
The company’s technology has already gained significant industry recognition, as IBM included the HI-VQE algorithm in its Qiskit work catalog earlier this year. This integration makes Qunova’s technology accessible to many IBM users, including Fortune 500 companies, academic institutions, government laboratories and startups.
“Qunova is the only company bringing quantum chemical-oriented applications to the market. We believe the impact of this will be significant and far-reaching, affecting everything from material design to drug discovery,” said Kang Woon Lee, partner at GU Equity Partners.
The HI-VQE algorithm uses a hybrid quantum-classical computer design that combines the strengths of both methods to reduce resource requirements while improving processing speed and calculation accuracy. Last year, Qunova demonstrated the power of the algorithm using multiple quantum methods with up to 68 qubit calculations.
The company is also introducing a new algorithm designed to handle complex solutions for up to 100,000 mid-range computers with today’s sound, with potential applications across many industries where complex calculations are at stake.
“Qunova’s innovative approach with this algorithm helps to address hardware limitations by avoiding some of the challenges on the hardware side, thus bringing quantum benefits like never before,” said GS Ventures CEO Sukhyun Hong.
The company plans to share more updates on its progress in achieving quantum in the second half of 2025.
