Deal news
Quantonation Ventures, a France-based venture capital firm focused on quantum technologies and “deep physics”, has raised EUR 220 million for a new flagship fund, according to EU-Startups. The investor group includes Vertex Holdings, Fonds National d’Amorçage 2, the European Investment Fund, Grupo ACS, Novo Holdings, Planet First Partners, and Toshiba.
The raise is a funding event at the manager level rather than a company acquisition: limited partners are paying for access to a specialised investment workflow (sourcing, technical diligence and portfolio construction) in one of the most complex corners of deep tech. The pain being removed is straightforward: most generalist funds and corporates struggle to underwrite quantum and advanced physics businesses without dedicated expertise, long time horizons and a high tolerance for technical and go-to-market uncertainty.
Why this fundraise matters
Quantonation’s ability to assemble a syndicate spanning public-market style institutions and industrial strategics signals that quantum is moving from “research-adjacent optionality” toward a more structured venture asset class in Europe.
For LPs, the value proposition typically rests on three retention and expansion drivers:
- Specialised diligence and selection: quantum computing, sensing and enabling hardware often demand domain-heavy diligence. A focused manager can standardise evaluation across physics, engineering readiness, and early customer validation.
- Portfolio support that is closer to product and GTM: deep-tech companies frequently need help translating lab-grade performance into reliability, manufacturability, and an initial commercial wedge. A sector specialist can bring repeatable playbooks for early pilots, procurement navigation and partner-led distribution.
- Network effects: the most credible quantum founders, academic labs and industrial partners tend to cluster. As the manager’s brand strengthens, sourcing and co-investment access can improve.
What the LP mix suggests
The backer list combines:
- Institutional capital (including the European Investment Fund and France’s Fonds National d’Amorçage 2), which often supports ecosystem-building and market formation.
- Strategic and industrial capital (including Toshiba and Grupo ACS), which typically looks for visibility into emerging technologies, partnership pathways and, over time, acquisition option value.
- Long-duration life sciences and technology investors (such as Novo Holdings), which are generally comfortable underwriting longer development arcs when the upside is platform-level.
This mix matters commercially because quantum and deep-physics startups often need non-linear financing: heavier early R&D, followed by step-changes in capital needs as they move into engineering, supply chain and regulated customer environments. Strategics can also de-risk the first few reference deployments, where credibility and integration matter as much as product performance.
Competitive context: specialist funds vs generalists
With no additional disclosed performance or portfolio detail in the available source, the clearest read-across is category structure.
Quantum investing remains specialist-led. Generalist VCs can participate, but many prefer to follow sector specialists once technical risk is better framed and a commercial wedge is visible. That dynamic supports specialist funds’ pricing power in rounds and their ability to secure allocation, but it also raises the bar on value-add: founders expect help with hiring, partners, and early customer access, not just capital.
For Quantonation, scaling from earlier funds into a EUR 220 million flagship vehicle likely increases exposure to later-stage needs within the portfolio. That typically pressures the manager to build deeper capabilities in:
- Syndication and follow-on strategy (to avoid dilution in winners)
- Commercialisation support (first customers, channel partners, procurement cycles)
- Cross-border access (US and Asia partnerships and co-investors), especially given the global race in quantum hardware and software
These are likely focus areas, but they are inference based on the fund size and the sector’s maturation path, not disclosed plans.
Outlook
A larger dedicated quantum and deep-physics fund should increase the availability of patient capital for European teams working on enabling technologies and early commercial deployments. The more important question is whether the next wave of companies can convert technical differentiation into repeatable revenue, particularly in sensing, security-adjacent applications, and industry-specific optimisation where “time to value” can be shorter than in full-stack quantum computing.
What this enables
- More consistent funding for deep-physics startups from seed through follow-ons
- Stronger institutionalisation of quantum investing in Europe
- Greater corporate involvement via pilots, partnerships and potential strategic routes
What to watch
- Whether the fund concentrates on hardware, software, or application layers as the market clarifies
- Follow-on discipline: how much capital is reserved to support breakout companies
- Evidence of commercial traction: reference customers, procurement cycles and repeatable deployments
- The role of strategics in driving pilots versus purely financial participation