GRENOBLE, France — If you want to build a quantum computer that scales, maybe you shouldn't try to reinvent semiconductor manufacturing from scratch.
That's the premise behind Quobly, a Grenoble-based startup that just pulled off one of Europe's heftiest quantum hardware raises: €115 million in a Series A announced June 3. The round, co-led by Bpifrance's Deep Tech 2030 fund, SEALSQ, and STMicroelectronics, represents a significant wager—not just on quantum computing broadly, but on a particular path to making it manufacturable at industrial scale.
Rather than exotic fabrication methods that require building production infrastructure from the ground up, Quobly is betting on silicon spin qubits fabricated on standard 300mm wafers. Think conventional chipmaking, but with the delicate quantum properties preserved. The approach has attracted a roster that reads like a who's who of European industrial strategy: the European Innovation Council Fund, Blast, ALIAD (Air Liquide's venture arm), and returning backer Innovacom all joined the round.
Paris Doubles Down on Quantum Sovereignty
Bpifrance's involvement, channeled through the France 2030 initiative, signals how seriously the French government takes the quantum race. This isn't venture capital chasing the next software unicorn—it's industrial policy with a checkbook.
STMicroelectronics, which has been a strategic partner since December 2024, didn't just participate; it doubled down, joining as both investor and continuing its long-term collaboration. SEALSQ came in through its SEALSQ Quantum Fund, which the company says grew from $20 million to $200 million in assets under management by June 3, 2026. That kind of growth, assuming the numbers hold, hints at how hot institutional money has gotten on quantum infrastructure plays.
The round also brought back Quobly's original backers—CEA, CNRS, Quantonation, and Supernova Invest—who seeded the company with €19 million in July 2023. Emerging from CEA-Leti and CNRS research labs in 2022, Quobly carries the pedigree of more than 15 years of joint academic work and holds north of 40 patent families.
Why Silicon Spin Qubits Matter (Maybe)
Here's where it gets technical, but also strategic.
Quobly builds quantum processors using silicon spin qubits—essentially manipulating the quantum state of individual electrons trapped in silicon. The twist? They're doing it on 300mm wafers using STMicroelectronics' fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) technology, a 28-nanometer process already humming along in commercial production lines.
Contrast that with quantum architectures requiring bespoke fabrication facilities—superconducting qubits, trapped ions, photonics—each of which comes with its own set of infrastructure headaches. Quobly's pitch is that leveraging existing semiconductor manufacturing know-how offers a shortcut to scalability. Whether that thesis holds once error rates and coherence times get scrutinized at commercial scale remains an open question. But the investor lineup suggests plenty of smart money thinks it's worth finding out.
The company now employs over 100 people, split between Grenoble, Singapore, and a recently launched subsidiary in Sherbrooke, Canada, which opened its doors in January. That geographic spread—anchored in France but reaching into North American and Asian ecosystems—looks like a deliberate play for talent and market access.
Revenue, Roadmaps, and Government Contracts
Quobly isn't just burning cash on R&D. According to Sifted, the company generated roughly €10 million in revenue over 2025–2026, largely courtesy of France's PROQCIMA program. Launched in March 2024, PROQCIMA is the French government's flagship effort to deliver large-scale quantum computers by 2032—a target Paris reinforced in May with an additional €1 billion commitment through 2030, upping the technical goal to 1,024 logical qubits.
That's real money flowing, though it's worth noting the revenue stems from state contracts rather than commercial customers buying quantum compute time. Still, government programs have a way of de-risking early hardware development, and Quobly seems positioned to ride that wave.
The Series A capital will bankroll industrialization of Quobly's first commercial system, dubbed Alloy Pioneer. The company plans to make it available via cloud through its Alloy Forge platform by year-end 2026, with deployment into high-performance computing centers slated for 2027. Ambitious? Sure. But in quantum, everyone's timelines are ambitious.
A Crowded European Field
Quobly's raise lands amid something of a European quantum hardware moment. British competitor Quantum Motion raised $160 million shortly before this announcement. Oxford Quantum Circuits closed a £260 million Series C the same week. French rival Alice & Bob—pursuing a different "cat-qubit" architecture—secured €100 million in January 2025.
The clustering isn't coincidental. European policymakers have made quantum a priority, funneling capital through initiatives like the European Innovation Council and national programs. The result is a mini-boom in hardware startups, each claiming their particular qubit flavor will crack the scalability puzzle first.
Quobly's edge, at least on paper, is its manufacturing story. Partnerships extend beyond investors to include Air Liquide, Soitec, and Orano, which are helping with process control, materials, cryogenics, and yield optimization—the unglamorous but essential work of turning lab prototypes into reproducible products. The company also collaborates with Inria on quantum error correction and control software tailored specifically to silicon spin qubits.
What Comes Next
Whether Quobly's silicon bet pays off hinges on execution: Can the team maintain quantum coherence at scale? Will error rates stay manageable as qubit counts climb? Can they hit their 2026–2027 timelines, or will those dates slip like so many quantum roadmaps before them?
For now, the company has runway and partners. Financial advisors Avolta and Rochefort & Associés shepherded the deal, with legal work from Goodwin and Kelten. Banking support came from BNP Paribas, Bpifrance, Caisse d'Épargne Rhône-Alpes, and Société Générale—a testament to how seriously French financial institutions are taking homegrown deep tech.
In an industry where hype often runs ahead of hardware, Quobly at least has the advantage of building on proven manufacturing processes. That's not a guarantee of success, but it's a strategy with fewer question marks than most. And in quantum computing, maybe that's enough.
