Diraq, a quantum computing startup, has received another $10.5 million as part of its Series A2 extension.

Diraq, a quantum startup in Sydney, has added another US$7m (A$10.5m), to its Series A-2.

The new funds come only four months after Diraq increased its Series A in Feburary with an additional A$23 million. This first tranche of A2 follows US$20 millions in a Series A 2022, when UNSW Sydney spun off the quantum computing solution.

Main Sequence, a deep tech fund backed by CSIRO, Taronga Ventures and UniSuper, Co:Act Capital and UNSW, Diraq’s founding investor, all contributed to the cash waved at Prof. Andrew Dzurak.

Quantonation, a Paris-based quantum investor, John Higgins Family Investments, and Allectus Capital are all previous investors.

Prof Dzurak’s team has been busy. Earlier this month, they announced plans for a computer chip which combines the power and speed of quantum bits with traditional transistors. The breakthrough is also remarkable because the testing created a record of control accuracy of 99.9%. This means that they have the precision required for full-scale quantum computer processors, which are error-corrected and manufactured by existing silicon-chip foundries.

In March, the startup announced that it had solved one of the many challenges faced by quantum computing, namely operating above absolute zero (minus 273.15 degrees Celsius).

Diraq, a leader in the field of silicon ‘quantum dots’ technology, is developing quantum processors. Its engineers discovered a new method of controlling electrons in quantum dots to run logic gates. The majority of current quantum computing methods require cooling to temperatures below absolute zero, minus 273.15 degC. At higher temperatures the qubits falter causing calculation errors to rise.

Dzurak’s team appears to have solved the problem and now has more money to drive further quantum innovations.

“Diraq is pleased to welcome our new investors and we look forward in working with them to achieve the major milestones of our road map for delivering the world’s fault-tolerant quantum computers,” he said.

Bill Bartee, managing partner of Main Sequence, said Diraq’s breakthroughs were a testament to Australia’s leadership position in quantum computing.

“Their world class team, patent portfolio, unique approach, and should advance the field, by bringing scalable spin-based quantum computer into the real world,” said he

“We see their potential for scale-up and compatibility with advanced semiconductor production technology as an advantage.”

Avi Naidu, cofounder of Taronga Ventures, said that the technology can transform industries.

“Major technological advancements, like Diraq’s Quantum Computers, will significantly impact real asset sectors. This represents a step-change towards the next generation of data Infrastructure,” he said.

“High-performance computing will enhance critical areas such energy modelling, climate, healthcare, and more.”

Diraq has received government funding as well as venture capital, including from the defence sector, bringing the total raised up to US$127,000,000.

The UNSW has labs for the startup.

READ NOW: Diraq founder Andrew Dzurak describes the incredible breakthrough his quantum computing startup has just made

Read More

Podcast: Investing In Technology Megatrends — AI, Cybersecurity And The Cloud

This week, Stuart Fieldhouse, host of the Investing, Money & Markets Podcast, talks to Mobeen Tair, Director for Macroeconomics and Thematic Research, at WisdomTree. Those who attended the Beyond the Channel event in London last summer will have heard his excellent presentation on Artificial Intelligence.

Stuart and Mobeen talk about three of the most important drivers in the technology sector right now, namely artificial Intelligence, the cloud, and cyber security. Each sub-sector offers investors a unique set of dynamics, but artificial intelligence seems to be the most popular at the moment.

NVIDIA NASDAQ NVDA aside we discuss if there are operational efficiencies within the AI value chain that could create opportunities for newcomers, how the cloud changed over the last 15 years, and if there is more to cyber security than just a vanilla defence play.

Listen: Investing Megatrends in Technology

Read More

Burning Heroes Global Startup Award Sparks US Innovation and Unveils Promising Ventures

Spencer Hulse, the editor-in-chief of Grit Daily, is responsible for overseeing other editors and writers. He is responsible for the day-to-day operation, overseeing other writers and editors, and covering breaking stories.

Read More

Centre Court Capital invests in Quidich Innovation Labs’ Series A funding round

Read More

Volvo Trucks reveals future battery-electric truck platforms

Volvo Trucks North America, during a press conference this week at its Volvo Trucks Customer Center, Dublin, Virginia, gave the media an exclusive look at its prototype for the upcoming VNL Electric Class 8 Tractor.

Volvo Trucks did not provide many details about the battery electric truck, but said that sales would begin in late 2019. The tractor will replace Volvo Trucks Class 8 battery-electric vehicles platform VNR Electric. The new truck is likely to share the same vehicle platform as Volvo Trucks’ new conventional VNL.

Volvo Trucks has been promoting the VNR Electric for nearly six years. Fleet customers Dependable Highway express and NFI have also been using them in drayage operations at the ports of California for five years.

Volvo Trucks, led by the VNR electric, is the market leader in North America for Class 8 electric trucks with a market share of 43.8%.

Magnus Koeck is the vice president of marketing for Volvo Trucks North America.

Volvo Trucks has 62 EV certified dealers in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Another 40 are on the way to certification. Koeck said that Volvo Trucks does not allow customers to order EV trucks unless their dealers are fully certified and capable of taking care of them. “You have to be able charge it, and you have to have dealers who can support it.”

[ Related to According to Volvo Trucks Vice President, BEV development has outpaced the deployment of charging infrastructure.

In North America, the market for Class 8 electric trucks is still small. Only 1,400 units are expected to be sold by 2024. Koeck warned, “but make no mistake, we are investing heavily in this for the future.”

Volvo Trucks purchased battery producer Proterra in the fall of last year to ensure its battery sourcing in North America. Volvo Trucks has sold more than 3,500 electric vehicles to customers in 45 different countries. Volvo Trucks has sold almost 1,000 battery-electric trucks in North America.

Read More

NATO Venture Capital Fund makes first investments in defense tech

The NATO Innovation Fund was established last year and is the first multi-sovereign fund in the world. It is backed by 24 out of the 32 member states of the alliance. It has restrictions against investing directly in weapons technology, but it invests in emerging technology that the alliance hopes to strengthen its defense and resistance in the future.

The fund will leverage its connections within the alliance in order to support their investments. O’Connor stated that early stage companies were often overwhelmed and had no idea how to work with [government and defence] organizations. “We are uniquely positioned to assist our portfolio companies by fostering growth and establishing partnerships between commercial and government organisations.”

A NATO official stated last year that NIF would also work to ensure that Western deep tech startup companies are able grow without needing to look to Beijing as a source of funding. He noted that startups were forced to look elsewhere due to the lack European venture capital. Kelly Chen, a fund partner, said that when European deep tech startups reach the growth stage, they are owned by more than half of their owners. “That’s a dynamic we’re fighting.”

Giedrimas Jeglinskas is a former NATO assistant secretary general. He told Semafor the success of the fund will be determined by its ability to “find its way into the defence capabilities of allies.” Jeglinskas added that “it is on track to achieve that.”

Read More

Maine’s New Madawaska Bridge opens to Canada

Stay up to date with the latest transportation news by receiving TTNews directly in your email. ]

The new bridge and land entry port between Maine and Canada opened on Monday, the culmination a $97.5-million project to build a bigger structure to replace an 104-year old span.

The Madawaska Bridge, which connects Edmundston in Canada with the U.S., was built on a new alignment across the St. John River. This is about 1,400 feet higher than the old location from the U.S. The structure is almost twice the length of the old one because of the new alignment.

The complex project was a collaboration between the U.S. and Canada. It involved the U.S. General Services Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection as well as Maine Department of Transportation.

The bridge’s opening marks the end of major construction for the three-year project, but some finishing work will continue into next year. The project was supported by a grant of $36 million from the U.S. Federal Highway Administration, awarded in 2019. The remaining costs of the project were shared between MaineDOT and New Brunswick Department of Transportation and Infrastructure.

The new international bridge between Madawaska and Edmundston in New Brunswick was officially opened this morning. pic.twitter.com/dqId6nhfXG — MaineDOT (@MaineDOT1) June 6, 2024

The Madawaska Bridge on the U.S. Side is connected to the New Brunswick port facility located on the Canadian Side. The new bridge is made of steel girders, designed to last for a century. It has wider travel lanes on both sides and shoulders. The old bridge, built in 1920, is in poor condition due to deterioration.

GSA has built a new land entry port on the U.S.-side of the new bridge. MaineDOT manages that project, with support from New Brunswick DTI and in coordination with federal agencies both from the U.S.A. and Canada. DTI is upgrading the Canada Border Service Agency’s facilities at the land entry port of entry in parallel with the bridge construction project.

(Maine Department of Transportation).

Transport Topics was told by a Customs and Border Protection representative that the new land entry port has been equipped with an oversized lane for trucks. GSA reports that the port processes 16,260 trucks a year traveling southbound to the U.S.

“Madawaska has a permit port.” There are no plans to designate it as a commercial harbor at this time. Most of the trucks that are seen at Madawaska come from local areas. It is less efficient, when considering the highway infrastructure to travel through Madawaska in order to reach other locations. Van Buren and Houlton, commercial [Maine] port cities, provide better logistical access to the existing highways system,” said the spokesperson.

According to the GSA website, which contains project information about the Madawaska Bridge, the land port entry has been designed for non-intrusive equipment inspection and “will remain as a permit port while having sufficient space to accommodate a possible change in designation to become commercial port.”

Want to know more? Listen below to the daily briefing or click here for more information:

Read More

QpiAI, based in India, secures $6.5 million in pre-Series A funding

Insider’s Brief

• QpiAI closed its first external funding round, securing a total of $6.5 million for pre-series A financing.
• The round was led by Yournest and SIDBI venture capital Limited (SVCL), with participation from a variety of other investors.
• QpiAI intends to use the funding to build a full-stack quantum computer with 25 qubits, which can be scaled up to 1,000 superconducting physical qubits.

According to an article in Outlook India, QpiAI is a leader in quantum computation and generative artificial intelligence based in India. The company has closed its initial external investment round by securing $6.5M in pre-series funding. The round was led Yournest and SIDBI venture capital Limited (SVCL), along with participation from a variety of other investors.

Participants in the funding include WFC, which is an angel group, Ramesh R. Radhakrishnan (a serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and technologist); Ramaswamy Prabhakar (a technologist, angel investor, and former CPO at Bentley); Quick Heal Security founders Kailash and Sanjay; Lakshmeenarayanan (former Chairman and CEO of Cognizant); Bhupinder S., former CPO at Bentley;

QpiAI will use this funding to develop a full stack 25-qubit quantum computing system that can be scaled up to 1,000 superconducting physical qubits by using the same infrastructure. The company also hopes to increase revenues from its seven platforms, which include QpiAI – pro, QpiAI – explorer, QpiAI – opt, QpiAI – pharma, QpiAI – ML, QpiAI – logistics, and QpiAI – matter. All of these platforms leverage quantum computing and generative AI technology.

According to Outlook India, Dr. Nagendra Nagaraja is the CEO and Founder of QpiAI. He said that “the Pre-Series A round will be remembered as an important funding round in Indian Deeptech.” This round will allow us to lay a foundation for intelligence modeling and intelligence computation via quantum computers and generative artificial intelligence. The funding will allow us to achieve breakthrough innovations in vertical integration of quantum computing and generative AI in enterprise and industrial applications.

According to the news magazine, QpiAI is already a revenue-generating technology startup focused on enterprise. Its customers include Fortune 500 companies from pharmaceuticals, materials and chemicals, cosmetics, automotives, financials, manufacturing, and manufacturing.

As part of the agreement, Debraj Banerjee will join the QpiAI Board as a nominee for SIDBI venture capital. Ramesh Radhakrishnan will join the QpiAI board as a nominee of Qpi Technology. QpiAI is the holding company for the first external investor.

“Building scalable quantum computers that can solve real world problems and bolster industry verticals is an important technology development,” said Dr. Manjunath R.V. Vice President for Quantum Computers, QpiAI. “At QpiAI we are very excited about having our own quantum computer to further build AI and quantum data centers. Our team is excited to advance our roadmap for scaling quantum computers from 25 to 1,000 qubits.

The funding will also be used to support the development of 25 qubit quantum computers in QpiAI’s Bangalore headquarters, by Q4 2024/Q1 2025. The integration of high performance computing (HPC), with quantum capabilities, will help QpiAI innovate its generative AI software and quantum software. The company plans to provide Quantum-HPC and Quantum Compute as a Service to its customers.

Sunil Goyal is the MD of Yournest. He said, “By investing QpiAI we are helping India become a leader in quantum computing.” This technology has the potential of revolutionizing fields such as materials science, drug development, automotive, and manufacturing. QpiAI is a key player for unlocking this potential. We’re excited to join Dr. Nagendra, the QpiAI Team and QpiAI on this exciting journey.

Sachin Kumar and Lakshya Prishdarshi, who lead QpiAI’s software solutions and products in generative AI, quantum software and quantum computing, noted that “In the past four years, we have been able to commercialize and gain traction with large blue-chip enterprises.” We envision scaling our software platform globally with this funding and our seven software products, which are ready to scale.

QpiAI is headquartered in Bangalore, India and has subsidiaries in the US and Finland. It plans to expand in global markets including the US, Europe and Japan, as well as the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Ramesh Radikhakrishnan said that quantum computers and AI were the future of all applied technologies across many different market segments. “Integrating software applications with quantum systems software and hardware is a fundamental invention whose significance will be enormous,” said Ramesh Radhakrishnan.

Read More

Custom 2000 Sterling uses adapted Peterbilt Chrome

Since we posted about Dustin Ross’ heavily-customized 2000 Sterling AT9522 last month, which he shared to Overdrive’s Reader Rigs gallery, we received a number of requests to show more of the unique rig.

I got in touch with Ross to hear more about his history in the business and more about the custom work he put into the truck, as well as to get some more pictures of the impressive build.

Ross, now 33, grew up around trucking, riding with his dad, Doug, behind the hood of a Peterbilt 379 in the 1990s. “He used to run coast-to-coast doing produce,” Ross said. “At a young age, that got me into it. I always wanted to be a driver.”

After high school, however, Ross went to college to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering and run track and field. When he turned 21, though, he knew he didn’t want to work an office job and wear a suit and tie, so he got his Class A CDL and got behind the wheel of a truck.

He drove team with his dad for a year in his Doug James Associates fleet, and he got the green light from the insurance company (the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association) to go out on his own and drive solo.

Originally based in Central New York, Ross was hauling furniture for Bay Minette, Alabama-based Standard Furniture up to New Jersey and New York City. “It worked out OK,” Ross said, but the lack of home time wore on him and spurred him to relocate closer to where the work was.

In 2017, he moved to Robertsdale, Alabama, just off I-10 southeast of Mobile. “I’m close to Bay Minette and Pensacola, Mobile for truck parts,” he said. “It’s 30 minutes in any direction.” His father had moved to Gulf Shores, Alabama, just south of Robertsdale, in 2014, so he wasn’t far from family when he moved south.

Work from Standard Furniture slowed down during COVID, so Ross and his father have transitioned to hauling mostly prefabricated concrete poles.

Dustin Ross’ “Stella” is shown here hauling a 105-foot concrete pole.

“I had been [hauling furniture] since 2011 or ’12,” Ross said, “and my father had been since 2006. I always thought I’d retire doing it. We’d do, some weeks 15 stops but on average 30-35 stops. It was good, honest work and something I thoroughly enjoyed.”

That dried up in September of 2020, and Ross’s company, now named D.J. Ross Trucking, hauled mostly spot market freight until he got into the concrete poles business full-time in January of this year.

[Related: Owner-op’s totally custom 2000 Sterling]

How the custom Sterling came to be

This is how “Stella” looked before Ross started replacing factory parts with custom pieces.

As for the 2000 Sterling he drives, nicknamed “Stella,” Ross bought it off his father when he went solo around 2011/2012. His father bought it in 2006 when it had around 500,000 miles on the odometer.

“When I had my one year in, and we were driving team in this truck, he wanted a cabover,” Ross said. “I didn’t think he’d sell me this truck or want to give it up. Motor-wise, he kept up on it, it had a healthy motor. But he wanted a cabover, running New York City” delivering to Rent-A-Center locations. The Sterling was “a dinosaur to maneuver up there,” Ross joked.

When Ross bought the truck from his father, it was still mostly stock. “The fuel tanks and rims were polished, but that’s about it,” he said.

He started on the custom work in 2014 and has been working on it ever since. He said the first big thing he did was to replace the dash. He took out the old plastic dash and added a fiberglass dash and color-matched it to the truck. Then, “slowly over the years I keep picking and choosing to keep customizing it to make it work,” he added.

The new dash Ross added to the truck.

He also added a hardwood floor and overhead panel inside the truck.

Ross said finding custom parts for a Sterling was a near-impossible task, so he had to get creative with a lot of it.

His tank straps were made for a Kenworth, but he cut them down and changed the brackets to adapt them to the Sterling. And a lot of the chrome on the rig was originally made for Peterbilts.

“That’s kind of what throws a lot of people for a loop,” he said. “It looks like stuff off a Pete, but there is a lot of thinking and research and development that goes into it.”

As highlighted in the prior post about Ross’ rig, the truck features:

• A 20-inch stainless steel bumper from Valley Chrome
• A grille surround that Ross made with aluminum flat-stock and hexagonal steel mesh
• Vocational-style headlights instead of the traditional aero headlights
• Front fenders from a newer-model 9522
• 12 Ga. Customs Peterbilt toolboxes under the doors
• Custom 150-gallon tanks
• 5-inch pipes mounted along the fuel tanks
• Talladega Fiberglass full fenders

Ross said his favorite feature on the rig is the 20-inch visor he built with his brother-in-law.

Click here to see more photos of reader uploads or to submit your own. 

For custom-equipment features delivered to your email inbox, subscribe to Overdrive’s weekly Custom Rigs newsletter via this link.

Read More