Yaqumo closes seed extension from Alumni Ventures, the firm's first deal in Japan
What's the deal? YaqumoDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a Tokyo-based quantum computing startup, has closed a seed extension round from Alumni Ventures, the US venture capital firm headquartered in Manchester, New Hampshire. The investment came through two of the firm's vehicles — its AV Seed Fund and the Japan + US Bridge Fund — and marks Alumni Ventures' first-ever investment in Japan.
Yaqumo builds neutral-atom quantum computers, an approach seen as promising for scalability. The company was founded in April 2025 and focuses on co-designing hardware and software to achieve practical fault-tolerant quantum computation.
The round's financial terms were not disclosed. The investment was structured as a J-KISS convertible instrument, a common early-stage funding mechanism in Japan.
Why now? The global race to commercialise quantum technology is intensifying, and Alumni Ventures has been expanding into Japan — opening a Tokyo office and launching a dedicated bridge fund to connect the US and Japanese startup ecosystems. Yaqumo, with its roots in Japan's deep quantum physics research base, fit the brief as a first deal.
"Neutral atoms are one of the key approaches to unlocking scalability in quantum computing, and Yaqumo's team has the ability to bring that potential to real-world deployment," said Michael Phillips, Alumni Ventures' chief legal officer and executive managing director for Asia Pacific.
What could go wrong? Quantum computing remains a pre-commercial technology with long development timelines and heavy capital requirements. Yaqumo is barely a year old and faces stiff competition from well-funded rivals in the US, Europe, and China pursuing neutral-atom and other qubit architectures.
Expanding into North America from Japan adds complexity — different regulatory environments, customer expectations, and talent markets. And without a disclosed funding amount, it's hard to gauge whether the round gives Yaqumo enough runway to execute on its ambitions.
The signal: Alumni Ventures' decision to make Yaqumo its inaugural Japanese investment underscores how early the global capital race for quantum hardware has become. With a dedicated Japan + US Bridge Fund and a new Tokyo office, Alumni Ventures is building infrastructure to source deep-tech deals from Japan's research ecosystem before European or other US rivals do. For Yaqumo, still at the early stage according to Dealroom, the real test will be whether this cross-Pacific backing can convert academic pedigree into a competitive position against far better-capitalised neutral-atom players like Pasqal and QuEraDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →.
Read more: PR TIMES
Image: QuEra Computing, Inc., CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
