Quick facts
- Global Employees: 170
- Investors: Airbus Ventures, AlphaEdison, Alumni Ventures, DCVC, Bullhound Capital, ICM Limited, InQTel, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Main Sequence Ventures, Mindrock, Morpheus Ventures, NTT Finance, Ridgeline Partners, Salesforce Ventures, Salus Ventures, Sierra Ventures, SquarePeg Capital, TIS INTEC Group
- Capital Raised: USD $133M, Series B
- Global Offices: Sydney, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berlin, Oxford
About Q-CTRL
Q-CTRL is a global pioneer with unmatched commercial traction in the emerging quantum technology industry - a sector poised to transform everything from finance and pharma through to logistics and defense.
Q-CTRL is a category defining business leading the development of AI-powered quantum infrastructure software, delivering globally unique technology to accelerate the pathway to the world's first useful quantum computers. This same foundational technology also underpins Q-CTRL’s development of novel “software-defined” quantum sensors for defense and intelligence.
Q-CTRL has assembled the world’s foremost team of expert quantum-control engineers, providing solutions to global quantum technology leaders including Universities, National Labs, and quantum technology industry partners. In May 2023, IBM Quantum announced that Q-CTRL's quantum infrastructure software would be natively embedded in its quantum computing fleet, and the team recently announced a partnership with Transport for NSW - delivering its enterprise infrastructure software to transport data scientists exploring quantum computing. In parallel, in July 2023 the Australian Department of Defence announced Q-CTRL's leading role delivering quantum-assured navigation to AUKUS allies.
Q-CTRL is a World Economic Forum Global Innovator, and is a member of the Quantum Economic Development Consortium, US Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, and a co-chair of the Australian Quantum Alliance within the Tech Council of Australia. Q-CTRL was selected as a Gartner Cool Vendor for 2023, one of the Top 10 Most Innovative Tech Companies by the Financial Review, and has been featured in The New York Times, The Economist, Forbes, Wired, Gizmodo, and more.
Awards
- TIME Best Inventions of 2025
- EdTech Breakthrough Award - Digital Courseware Solution of the Year 2024 & 2025
- Paul Shetler Disrupter of the Year Award Finalist 2024
- Gartner - Cool Vendor in Quantum Computing 2023
- Startup Daily - Most Innovative Startup 2023
- SIIA CODiE Award - Best Workforce Learning Solution Finalist 2023
- Quantum Effects Award - Quantum Software 2023
- The Australian - Top 100 Innovators 2022-2025
- Financial Review - Most Innovative Companies 2021
- InnovationAus - Australian Hero 2021
About the founder
Professor Michael J. Biercuk is a global science and technology innovator building the greenfield quantum technology industry. Michael has a proven track record of success developing and managing strategic high-growth quantum technology initiatives within industry, government, and academia, as well as crafting policy at national and international levels to support the sector. He is uniquely experienced at the intersection of advanced technology development and national security based on his time in the US DoD and IC.
- Global expert in quantum control engineering and quantum computing
- >75 technical manuscripts in quantum technology, >11,000 citations
- Professor of quantum physics, University of Sydney
- PhD Harvard University, quantum physics
- BA University of Pennsylvania, physics
- Program management DARPA, US Department of Defense
- Technical consultant, Booz Allen Hamilton (Gov’t practice)
- TEDxSydney and SXSW speaking alumnus
- Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Outstanding Early Career Investigator, The Australian Top 100 Innovators, SMH Most Influential People, and the AmCham Alliance Awards.
Short professional bio
Michael J. Biercuk is the CEO and Founder of Q-CTRL and formerly a Professor of Quantum Physics and Quantum Technology at the University of Sydney. He is a globally recognized pioneer in the discipline of quantum control engineering, seeking to make quantum systems perform useful work. Michael earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and his Masters and PhD from Harvard University. He held a research fellowship in the Ion Storage Group at NIST Boulder, and has served as a full-time technical consultant to DARPA, helping to steer government investments in quantum information and advanced computer architectures. Michael is a SXSW, Economist Impact, and TEDx speaking alumnus and has won multiple awards for research, innovation, and commercial technology development.