Q-CTRL Wins InnovationAus Australian Hero Award

SYDNEY, Dec. 2, 2021 – Q-CTRL, a startup that applies the principles of control engineering to accelerate the development of quantum technology, today announced it was named a winner of the InnovationAus Australian Hero Award for its technology’s potential to make quantum computing useful by improving quantum computer stability. The company was also recognized as a finalist in the Defence and Wild Card categories.

The InnovationAus Awards recognize the best of Australian innovation, and the contributions innovators make to build the future of the nation. Judged by industry experts, the Australian Hero Award recognizes company leaders whose ambition and drive has resulted in a game-changing innovation and commercial success.

Quantum computers offer revolutionary capabilities for applications ranging from drug discovery and enterprise logistics to finance. The underlying hardware, however, is extremely unstable and fragile, preventing these machines from reaching their full potential. Q-CTRL’s technology solves this problem by delivering firmware that stabilizes fragile quantum states, accelerating the development of useful quantum computers.

Q-CTRL is also a leader in the development of quantum-enabled sensors where it leverages the fragility of quantum states to detect tiny environmental signals to create new applications in defense, aerospace, climate monitoring, mining, GPS-free navigation, and more. Q-CTRL has assembled the world’s foremost team of expert quantum-control engineers, providing solutions to many of the most advanced quantum computing and sensing teams globally.

“Being named the InnovationAus Australian Hero Award winner validates our efforts to make quantum computing useful,” said Q-CTRL Founder and CEO Professor Michael J. Biercuk. “As Australia recently invested $111M in quantum technology and deemed quantum computing critical to national interest, we’re proud to be recognized as a top innovator in Australia and look forward to seeing our technology’s implications throughout the nation.”

Biercuk accepted the award at a black-tie gala event in Sydney yesterday evening.

This award win comes at the end of a momentous year for Q-CTRL. Just this week, the company announced a Series B fundraise of $25 million USD led by Airbus Ventures. This year, Q-CTRL was also named to the Most Innovative Companies List by The Australian Financial Review and BOSS Magazine and was awarded a $3.5 million grant from the Australian government for space-based quantum sensors.

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