Unitary Fund 2021 Annual Report

To the Unitary Fund community,

2021 was a year of rapid growth across quantum technology. Steady technical progress was matched with a completely new level of resources and funding for the space. The $2.5Bn+ invested in quantum computing companies just last year is more than the total across the previous decade combined. The vision for a robust quantum technology industry increasingly resonates with scientists, engineers, investors, and customers.

Still, there are challenges to overcome. New capital in our space must be deployed to fill gaps in the quantum ecosystem. We need to develop error correction, scalable hardware technologies, useful algorithms with provable advantages, ways to benchmark and project the performance of heuristic algorithms, and more. Some of these challenges are well addressed by academic and industry players. However, others are public goods that help everyone but that don’t stand alone as businesses. These are the open development tools, standards, benchmarks, interfaces, educational and training materials, skill-sharing networks, open source communities, mentorship networks and more that form the soil from which a rich industry and ecosystem can grow.

Unitary Fund helps build these crucial public goods.

These tools and communities lower the barrier to entry for new people and ideas. They form the ecosystem that companies will hire from and sell into. We believe that investment in public goods and open communities will get us both to a quantum tech future faster and to a future that benefits more people.

And we aren’t the only ones. Our supporters, advisors, grants winners, open source contributors, hackathon participants have all come together to form the growing Unitary Fund community.

I’m thrilled by the diversity of the talent that I get to work with across the community. From experts with decades of experience at the largest global companies to high school students to developing countries. I am inspired by the creativity and drive that I see everyday. It is a joy to share a passion for quantum technologies with all of you.

As you will see in the following pages of our annual report, we are growing rapidly and are excited for what comes next.

Read the full 2021 annual report.

Thanks to all of you who have joined us in this mission.

William Zeng

President, Unitary Fund