• QMill, a Finnish quantum computing startup, raised $4.5 million in seed funding.
• The startup was founded by Nokia Technologies’ former CTO and a quantum computing professor.
• QMill plans to develop energy-efficient algorithms for sectors like financial services and telecoms.

QMill, a newly launched quantum computing startup, has raised $4.5 million in seed funding.

Based in Espoo, Finland, QMill was founded by a team that includes Nokia Technologies’ former CTO, Hannu Kauppinen, and a quantum computing professor, Mikko Möttönen.

Quantum computing has advanced significantly in recent years, but there are challenges slowing widespread adoption. QMill wants to make the sector more accessible and is developing algorithms for “near-term quantum computers to solve complex problems that are too large for existing supercomputers.”

The company will focus on developing efficient quantum algorithms that are practical for sectors like financial services and telecoms.

“Quantum computing is expected to solve complex computational problems that current, classical computers cannot do, and we want to make it accessible for real use cases,” Kauppinen, CEO and cofounder at QMill, told Business Insider. “We will target companies, and we have ideas that we think can deliver advantages in the near term using the available hardware.”

QMill believes that its algorithms could also be useful in optimizing large language models and other AI developments.

The company raised the $4.5 million seed funding from Finnish investor Maki.vc, along with Antler and Kvanted.

“This seed funding will be used to develop energy-efficient algorithms to deliver a quantum advantage,” said Kauppinen, who worked at Nokia for nearly 27 years. “We plan to build a 30-person strong team of physicians, mathematicians computer scientists to establish our business model and negotiate proof of concept with companies.”

Check out QMill’s 14-slide pitch deck below: