🎊 Heartcore Insights
Edition #134
Hi there,
Welcome to the 134th edition of Heartcore Insights, curated with 🖤 by the Heartcore Team.
If you missed the past newsletters, you can catch up here. Now, let’s dive in!
The Second Century of Quantum Won't Be Built in Silicon Valley
Driving back from Q2B Silicon Valley to the airport a month ago, I found myself surrounded by billboards. “Your AI SDR that never sleeps.” “Agentic workflows for enterprise.” “Deploy autonomous agents in minutes.” The usual Silicon Valley chorus. Meanwhile, inside the conference, John Preskill had just made a quiet but significant announcement: We are entering the second century of quantum.
What will this second century bring? Preskill’s answer was ambitious – the wonders we encounter may far surpass those of the first century. Yet nobody on the highway seemed to notice. This was the final Q2B conference in Silicon Valley. Next year, it moves to Chicago. The quantum revolution, it seems, isn’t happening where the silicon revolution began. Things change.
Where quantum is actually happening
The policy landscape tells the story. According to the OECD, 18 OECD member countries plus the EU have now adopted dedicated national quantum strategies. Global governments have committed an estimated $55.7B to quantum science and technology since 2013. The momentum is accelerating. According to OECD, international quantum patent families grew sevenfold between 2005 and 2024 – a 20% compound annual growth rate, compared to just 2% for all technologies combined.
The ECIPE quantum clusters ranking attempts to map where this activity concentrates, identifying 45 quantum clusters worldwide. The ranking places Cambridge, UK at #1, Helsinki, Finland at #2, Oxford, UK at #3. The ranking is directionally interesting, but I’d score some clusters differently. Chicago should rank significantly higher given the ecosystem forming there (hence the Q2B move). The Munich area and Delft deserve more prominence. Japan’s near-absence from the top rankings feels like a gap. Still, the report captures something important: the sheer breadth of places where quantum is being developed. This is not a one-city phenomenon.
This distribution is significant. Quantum isn’t following the playbook of software or even AI, where winner-take-all dynamics concentrate innovation in a few zip codes. The physics is too hard, the talent too specialised, the infrastructure too demanding. Progress happens where deep research institutions, precision manufacturing and patient capital converge – and those conditions exist in many places.
The data on Europe is particularly striking. According to the IE CGC report on Europe’s quantum readiness, Europe is building what no single nation can – continent-wide quantum infrastructure through EuroQCS for computing and EuroQCI for secure communications. The report’s expert panel rates Europe’s quantum competitiveness at 3-4 out of 5, with a clear trajectory toward what they call “A Sovereign Quantum Europe” by 2040.
From science to industry
As we argued in our earlier piece, the race isn’t about counting qubits, rather it is about building the infrastructure that will manufacture them at scale – and this is what the second century of quantum will be about.
Conferences like the ISIG Quantum Computing Infrastructure Summit are now addressing exactly this: manufacturing, scalability and the path to commercialisation. The Quantum Insider reached similar conclusions.
The question isn’t whether quantum will matter – it will. The question is where it will be built.
Wherever you are based, there are likely researchers, engineers and entrepreneurs building quantum around you. If you are one of them – whether working on hardware, enabling infrastructure or the software stack that will connect it all – we’d love to talk. We can help connect you to the broader ecosystem and think through where this goes next.
~ Michael Baczyk, Investor, Heartcore Capital
Quantum Computing in the Second Quantum Century, John Preskill, Q2BSV 2025
An Overview of National Strategies and Policies for Quantum Technologies, OECD
Quantum clusters: Ranking the World’s Deep-Tech Epicentres, ECIPE
Heartcore on Quantum, Michael Baczyk
Insider Data Trends Show Quantum Entering Industrial Deployment, Quantum Insider
🇪🇺 Notable European early-stage rounds
Anzen Industries, a UK-based biomanufacturing startup focused on producing chemicals via cell-free enzymes, raises $2.2M with LocalGlobe - link
Stilla, a Sweden-based startup building AI-human collaborative decision infrastructure, raises $5M with General Catalyst - link
24 Industries, a Germany-based drone-maker, raises $11.8M with Lakestar - link
Enodia Therapeutics, a France-based startup developing ML-driven targeted protein degradation platform, raises $25M with Bpifrance - link
🇺🇸 Notable US early-stage rounds
Formulary, an AI-native fund administrator, raises $4.6M with Khosla - link
Aurora, a personalised genetics medicine startup, raises $16M with Menlo - link
Converge Bio, a startup accelerating drug discovery with generative AI, raises $25M with Bessemer - link
Protege, a startup unlocking trusted real-world data at scale, raises $30M with A16Z - link
depthfirst, a startup building AI-powered cyber defence systems, raises $40M with Accel - link
🔭 Notable later stage rounds
Harmonic, a US-based startup building AI for mathematical reasoning, raises $120M with NVentures/Ribbit/Sequoia - link
Harmattan AI, a France-based startup developing autonomous, AI-driven drone and air-defence systems, raises $200M with Dassault Aviation - link
Pennylane, a France based fintech providing accounting and finance for SMEs, raises €175M with TCV/Blackstone - link
Terralayr, a Germany-based utility-scale battery storage platform, raises €192M with Eurazeo - link
OpenEvidence, a US-based AI medical search platform for clinicians, raises $250M with Thrive/DST - link
Mews, a Netherlands-based cloud native hospitality management system, raises $300M with EQT/Atomico - link
Parloa, a Germany based AI-powered customer service automation platform, raises $350M with General Catalyst - link
🖤 Heartcore News
Nūmi®🖤 is featured in WIRED’s 100 Hottest Startups in Europe. 🔥
Perk🖤 launches AI-powered Perk Events. 🪽
IXI🖤 autofocus lenses awarded the Best Emerging Technology by Engadget’s Best of CES 2026! 🏆
Perk🖤 and Corti🖤 are featured on the tech champions list of the European Investment Fund (EIF). 🇪🇺
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Fascinating take on quantum's geographical shift. The point about manufacturing infrastructure mattering more than qubit count realigns how we shoud think about competitive advantage. I've noticed similar patterns in other deep tech where supply chain proximity and patient capital matter way more than typical VC timelines suggest. The Chicago conference move is a tell, not just about regional strength but about needing different kinds of ecosytem supports.