QuDosThe Finnish AI lab founded by former AMD Silo AI CEO Peter Sarlin is now valued at €325 million (approximately $380 million) after raising a €25 million ($29 million) angel round. It is a sign of lasting tailwinds for AI, quantum computing and sovereign technology, especially for European manufacturing companies.
QuTwo’s name is a nod to quantum computing, but it hasn’t gone all-in on quantum computing. Its flagship product, QuTwo OS, is an orchestration layer that directs tasks to classical, quantum, or hybrid architectures, with the idea that enterprise use cases are often better served by “quantum-inspired” computing, which uses classical chips to simulate quantum behavior on more reliable hardware.
Enterprise AI will be QuTwo’s bread and butter. The company has already earned about $23 million in committed revenue from design partnerships with companies like retail giant Zalando, for which it helped develop AI assistants. “AI is the north star that we will continue to aim for. Quantum is simply a new type of computing,” said Sarlin, who insists that QuTwo It is an artificial intelligence company.
Momentum has been building around European-based AI labs, with several of them becoming unicorns overnight. Last week, former DeepMind researcher David Silver raised $1.1 billion for his new project. ineffable intelligence. QuTwo’s valuation and round size are somewhat modest in comparison, but will allow it to follow its roadmap under less pressure.
According to Sarlin, who serves as CEO of QuTwo, this was a decision he also made for his previous company, Silo AI, which AMD acquired for $665 million in 2024. “I had a lot of investors who would have wanted to invest a lot of money to turn Silo into the OpenAI of Europe, but I didn’t believe in that move,” he told TechCrunch.
The main difference is that QuTwo wants the freedom to think long-term, with a five- to ten-year horizon. “We are on a mission to build the world’s leading AI enterprise for the next paradigm, as Europe has failed to build the AI enterprise for this era,” Sarlin said.
It’s not that Sarlin is bearish on European AI, of which he is a prolific backer. He’s also not necessarily critical of extra-large rounds: He offered to say he’s also an investor in Ami Laboratories by Yann LeCunwhich raised $1.03 billionand in the British-American company Recursive Superintelligence, which is rumored to follow the same path. But he didn’t think a $1 billion round was right for QuTwo, or even for venture capital money, at least for now.
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Until recently, QuTwo was funded solely through Sarlin’s family office, Postscriptwhich also incubated to gothe other company in which he serves as executive president. But while NestAI raised about 115 million dollars In a funding round led by Finland’s sovereign wealth fund and Nokia, QuTwo was not looking to raise external funding.
However, when the lab’s soft launch generated significant interest earlier this year, Sarlin decided he would say no to checks from venture capitalists and strategic investors, but yes to an angel round, in part because of the geopolitical moment Europe is currently going through.
With Europe increasingly seeking to favor local alternatives to US technology suppliersthere are tailwinds for AI made in Finland. But there is also investor appetite for a company that promises to facilitate more ambitious R&D initiatives in fields where the region already has strong players, such as the automotive, life sciences and gaming sectors.
By contrast, Sarlin hopes QuTwo’s angel investors can open doors across Europe. There are definitely quite a few introductions you could request from this group, which includes Yuri Milner, Xavier Niel, Nico Rosberg, Dieter Schwarz and Niklas Zennström, as well as many startup founders from Hugging Space, Legora, Miro, Skype, Supercell, Wolt and more.
This will also support QuTwo’s growth. It recently expanded into Sweden and has been hiring. According to Sarlin, about 50 quantum and AI scientists have joined the team, which includes two other second-time entrepreneurs: his former Silo co-founder, Kaj-Mikael Björk; and Kuan Yen Tan, co-founder of IQM, the Finnish quantum company that is ready to be made public.
QuTwo’s connection to IQM is also a reminder that the company believes we are about to enter the quantum age: it just can’t wait. “The question for returning founders like (us) is how we can have an even greater impact. In the long term, it is important for Europe that we build the AI enterprise for the next paradigm outside of Europe. But, in the short term, we can have a significant impact by driving ambitious research and development projects in Europe,” Sarlin said.
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