Finnish quantum unicorn IQM has been launched publicly

Finnish unicorn The value of IQM today announced plans to go public through a private equity investment company (SPAC), valuing the company at approximately $1.8 billion. The move will see IQM join the growing group of computer companies listed on US stock exchanges.

Founded in 2018 as a spinout from Finland’s Aalto University and VTT Technical Research, IQM sells quantum computers and a cloud platform to access its systems, with customers including academic and industrial laboratories around the world.

Public companies have seen their stock rise in recent monthsencouraged by signs from governments and Big Tech that “multiple profits” on supercomputers will soon be available. This has led the believers double downwith the conviction that this work will soon have real benefits for the life sciences, new materials, etc.

Going public will give IQM a long way to support its business plans. The company reported $35 million in revenue by 2025 and $100 million in reserves. With the completion of this transaction, its revenue will exceed $450 million. But the company can also see how its market is going up or down, depending on how much money it needs to buy more stocks.

With industrial activity still years away, questions remain as to whether the latest upheaval will last. These questions come to a head because many of these companies went public through SPACs — a process that’s faster than a traditional IPO, but which peaked in 2021 and left many investors nursing a nursing home.

Despite this bitter taste, quantum SPACs are back in fashion. Earlier this month, the atom neutral company Infleqtion jumped in his debut on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) through a SPAC, and Canadian company Xanadu Quantum Technologies plans to go public through a SPAC on the Nasdaq in late March.

Now, IQM is following in their footsteps but is considering entering the public markets of the US and Nordic exchanges. In the US, it can go public either on Nasdaq or on the NYSE – a blank check company, if it has a vehicle registered with Nasdaq, Real Asset Acquisition Corp., but as a foreign company, it will list American Depositary Shares, and the list must be approved.

According to CrunchbaseIQM has raised $569.1 million to date. His latest salary was a $320 million Series B led by the US investment company Ten Eleven Ventures with the support of the Finnish company Tesi, Schwarz Group, Winbond Electronics Corporation, EIC, Bayern Kapital, and the World Fund.