Zapata Computing has raised $38 million for its quantum computing enterprise software platform. The figure, which brings its total funding to over $64 million, will be put toward Zapata's core mission: "Delivering quantum advantage for customers through real business use cases." Quantum computing leverages qubits (unlike bits that can only be in a state of 0 or 1, qubits can also be in a superposition of the two) to perform computations that would be much more difficult, or simply not feasible, for a classical computer. Unlike most quantum computing startups that build the hardware, Zapata is focused on the algorithms and software that sit on top. Based in Boston, Zapata has one product: its hardware-agnostic Orquestra quantum computing platform.

If "figure out quantum computing" is still in your future file, it's time to update your timeline. The industry is nearing the end of the early adopter phase, according to one expert, and the time is now to get up to speed. Denise Ruffner, the vice president of business development at IonQ, said that quantum computing is evolving much faster than many people realize. "When I started five years ago, everyone said quantum computing was five to 10 years away and every year after that I've heard the same thing," she said. "But four million quantum volume was not on the radar then and you can't say it's still 10 years away any more."

Zapata Computing has raised $38 million for its quantum computing enterprise software platform. The figure, which brings its total funding to over $64 million, will be put toward Zapata's core mission: "Delivering quantum advantage for customers through real business use cases." Quantum computing leverages qubits (unlike bits that can only be in a state of 0 or 1, qubits can also be in a superposition of the two) to perform computations that would be much more difficult, or simply not feasible, for a classical computer. Unlike most quantum computing startups that build the hardware, Zapata is focused on the algorithms and software that sit on top. Based in Boston, Zapata has one product: its hardware-agnostic Orquestra quantum computing platform.

The story of quantum computing hardware companies is well known. But as tech giants Amazon and Microsoft push the quantum computing conversation to the cloud, we're also seeing quantum computing software companies emerge. One such company, Zapata, is building an enterprise software platform for quantum computing. Businesses with deep pockets are increasingly exploring quantum computing, which depends on qubits to perform computations that would be much more difficult, or simply not feasible, on classical computers. Quantum advantage, the inflection point when quantum computers begin to solve useful problems, is a long way off (if it can even be achieved) but its potential is massive.