KETS Quantum Security CEO warns UK to revolutionize funding or risk innovation exodus

Informative summary

• A leading UK quantum executive warns that without a Sovereign Quantum Fund in the next budget, the UK risks losing its quantum companies, talent and intellectual property to overseas markets.
• Several British quantum companies, including PsiQuantum, Universal Quantum and Oxford Ionics, have already moved their operations abroad this year due to limited domestic capital to expand their operations.
• Lisa Matthews, chief executive of KETS Quantum Security, argues that only a government-backed investment vehicle can prevent further innovation leakage, protect national security technologies and sustain commercial quantum growth within the UK.
• Photo by Efren Efre in Pexels

PRESS RELEASE: With less than two weeks to go until the Budget speech, a leading voice in the quantum industry warns that the UK government must announce a Quantum Sovereign Fund, or risk an exodus of innovation.

This follows several cases of leading quantum companies leaving the UK for the US and continental Europe to scale already this year. PsiQuantum, a spin-out from the University of Bristol, is now scaling mainly in the US, Universal Quantum has moved to Hamburg and Oxford Ionics was acquired by Maryland-based IonQ.

Lisa Matthews, CEO of KETS Quantum Securitybelieves that this trend will become increasingly prominent. This would see the UK relinquish control of critical national infrastructure and technologies linked directly to the nation’s security, which would require reliance on foreign suppliers to be truly quantum. That is unless the government makes significant changes to the support it offers to quantum start-ups and scale-ups.

She says: “The UK has made real progress in supporting quantum innovation, but the reality is that many startups lack the capital needed to scale at pace. Grants and challenge funds help ideas get off the ground, but they don’t close the gap between ideation and rapid commercial scale.

“Announcing a Quantum Sovereign Fund during the Budget speech is a necessity to prevent a mass exodus of British innovation and prosperity, and to avoid ceding control of critical quantum technologies. It would act as a driver of long-term investment in the UK’s quantum future, creating an ecosystem where quantum startups can prosper commercially, rather than relocating to countries like the US or mainland Europe.

“We are lagging behind in global stock markets, as China, the EU, Germany, France, Denmark, Japan, Singapore and South Korea already have venture vehicles to deploy public funds directly into quantum technologies. The United States has also announced recent plans to acquire stakes in local quantum companies. Companies are raising capital globally, and we need to keep pace.

“By launching a Sovereign Quantum Fund, the UK government can not only safeguard critical intellectual property, it can also send a powerful message to global investors: the UK is serious about leading the way in quantum deployment and growth. Without changes, the UK will remain the world’s R&D hub but will see none of the profits and relinquish control of its national security. World-class research will be scaled up overseas or sold off before it comes close to reaching its full potential. in their own territory.”