Quantum Motion raises $160M to build quantum computers on silicon chips
What's the deal? Quantum Motion, a London-based quantum computing company, has raised $160M in a Series C round co-led by DCVC and KembaraDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → — an EU-backed technology growth fund making its first investment.
The British Business Bank and Firgun VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → also participated, alongside existing investors including Oxford Science EnterprisesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, INKEF CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Bosch VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Porsche SEDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and ParkwalkDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. The company was founded by Oxford UniversityDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → professors John MortonDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and Simon BenjaminDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →.
Quantum Motion is building silicon-based quantum computers using the same CMOS chip fabrication process used to manufacture conventional computer chips. Rather than the exotic, difficult-to-manufacture materials used by most quantum computing approaches — including superconducting qubits requiring near-absolute-zero temperatures — its technology uses standard silicon transistor structures that can be fabricated on existing 300mm wafer production lines.
The company claims its architecture could deliver 100-fold cost reductions and 1,000-fold lower energy consumption compared to current quantum systems, with processors small enough to fit in a standard data centre rack. In 2025, it deployed the first full-stack silicon CMOS quantum computer at the UK's National Quantum Computing CentreDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →.
Why now? The quantum computing industry is at a critical juncture — the theoretical case for quantum advantage in areas like drug discovery, materials science, and cryptography is well established, but the engineering path to reliable, scalable machines has proven enormously difficult.
Most leading approaches, including Google's and IBMDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →'s superconducting qubit systems, require specialised cryogenic environments and face significant manufacturing challenges at scale. Silicon spin qubits, Quantum Motion's approach, leverage six decades of semiconductor manufacturing maturity — the same industrial infrastructure that produces billions of transistors in every smartphone chip.
Kembara's involvement is strategically significant beyond the capital. As the EU's first major quantum computing investment, it signals European institutional commitment to building a competitive quantum capability outside the US and China.
What could go wrong? Silicon spin qubits face their own significant technical challenges — qubit coherence times and error rates remain active areas of research, and the path from a laboratory demonstration to a commercially useful fault-tolerant quantum computer remains long and uncertain.
The 2025 deployment at the National Quantum Computing Centre is an important milestone, but useful quantum computing at commercial scale requires error correction capabilities that no company has yet demonstrated.
The competitive landscape is also intensifying. IBM, Google, and Microsoft are all investing billions in their own quantum programmes, and well-funded startups including IonQ, PsiQuantum, and QuantWare are pursuing different technical approaches with significant resources.
The signal: Quantum Motion's raise — and Kembara's decision to make it its inaugural investment — reflects a growing conviction that silicon is the most credible path to commercially scalable quantum computing. The "transistor moment" framing the company uses is deliberate: the transistor was not the first computing technology, but it was the one that scaled. Silicon quantum computing is a bet that history will repeat itself.
The EU's entry into quantum hardware investment also marks a political as much as a commercial signal — that Europe intends to compete in the quantum era rather than depend on the US or China for the technology that could define the next generation of computation.
Sources:
Quantum Motion
Bloomberg
The Next Web
Tech.eu
Sifted
UK Tech News
The Quantum Insider
Tech Funding News
Resilience Media
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Quantum Motion
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