Equal1 Laboratories (Equal1), the silicon quantum computing company, has announced that chief operating officer (COO) Jason Lynch has been appointed CEO. Company founder and board member Dirk Leipold will move into the role of president to focus his energy on accelerating development of the company’s quantum-enhanced processor technology.

The company has secured a total of €20m investment, from blended (grant and equity) funding through the European Innovation Council (EIC), and a venture capital funding round led by btov Industrial Technologies with long-time Equal1 investor Atlantic Bridge and others, including Enterprise Ireland and 808 Ventures.

'Affordable, functional quantum computers'

“With our recent funding and the substantial progress we have made toward enabling affordable, functional quantum computers, it’s key that I focus on overseeing our technology strategy and development execution,” said Dirk Leipold.

“Jason has been instrumental in building out the team and leading our fundraising efforts and is well positioned to lead the company into the next stage.”

Dirk Leipold founded Equal1 with Mike Asker and Professor R Bogdan Staszewski as a spin-out from University College Dublin (UCD) to address a major challenge for the quantum computing industry, to scale the number of qubits so that a quantum computer can tackle useful, real-world problems. The company’s research and development teams are based at NovaUCD, in Dublin and Silicon Valley, California.

Jason Lynch, with a 22-year career of delivering high impact results in executive management, has led the Equal1 Irish operation, and has driven the company’s strategy, fundraising and scaling.

Prior to joining Equal1, he held several executive management positions, most recently as a general manager at Analog Devices and previously as managing director at Hittite Microwave.

'Pivotal stage'

“Dirk and I have worked closely together to lead the company to this pivotal stage,” said Lynch.

“I am honoured that he is trusting me to take the company he co-founded to the next level of funding, recruitment and growth that will be needed to deliver on his vision of democratizing quantum computing,” he added.

Equal1’s quantum technology is well suited to Quantum Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning. AI is transforming every aspect of our lives from self-driving vehicles to AI-designed drugs.

However, the amount of energy required by these applications means that it is now a material and growing contributor to global carbon output and hence global warming. Equal1’s quantum computing technology will enable vastly better performance at a fraction of the energy.