OptQC Completes JPY 7.0 Billion Series A2 Financing Round Through Private Placement
TOKYO, Japan — August 25, 2026 — OptQC Corp. (“OptQC” or the “Company”; Headquarters: Toshima-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director and CEO: Kan Takase) today announced the close of a JPY 7.0 billion (approx. US$47 million)¹ Series A2 financing led by NTT, Inc. (“NTT”). The round was completed through a private placement of new shares and brings the Company's total capital and public funding secured to date beyond JPY 20.0 billion (approx. US$133 million).
Founded in September 2024 on more than 25 years of research at the Furusawa Laboratory, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, OptQC is building next-generation computing infrastructure powered by optical quantum technology that runs at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. The Company will use the new capital to accelerate development of a next-generation processor and to expand its hiring.
Twenty one investors participated in the round:
OptQC has raised JPY 9.15 billion (approx. US$61 million) in equity across three rounds in under two years: a JPY 650 million seed round in January 2025, a JPY 1.5 billion Series A1 in October 2025, and this JPY 7.0 billion Series A2. Including public R&D grants already awarded, total funding secured surpasses JPY 20.0 billion (approx. US$133 million).
The composition of this round — telecom carriers, electronics and precision-instrument manufacturers, an airline group, a real estate developer and multiple financial institutions — signals a shift in how quantum computing is being evaluated. It is no longer treated as a narrow research program, but as a next-generation computing platform with near-term applications in materials science, pharmaceuticals, financial engineering and logistics optimization. OptQC will work with its new investors to develop joint business initiatives that pair the Company's hardware with each partner's domain expertise, proprietary datasets and real-world testing environments.
Ahead of this financing, OptQC and NTT entered into a capital and business alliance to advance the practical realization of a fault-tolerant optical quantum computer. Further detail is available in OptQC's release, “OptQC and NTT Sign New Capital and Business Alliance Agreement Toward the Practical Application of Optical Quantum Computers,” published on August 3, 2026, and NTT's release, “NTT and OptQC Sign New Capital and Business Alliance Agreement Toward the Practical Application of Optical Quantum Computers,” published on August 3, 2026.
Proceeds will be deployed against two priorities:
- Next-generation processor development. OptQC unveiled its first commercial demonstration system — a first-generation machine engineered for operational stability — in July 2026, and the system is now in operation. The Company will invest in a successor processor targeting approximately 10,000 qubits and roughly 100× the computational performance of that machine. Critically, this scaling will be achieved while preserving room-temperature, atmospheric-pressure operation.
- Global talent acquisition. OptQC is expanding hiring across quantum optics, electrical circuit design, mechanical engineering, control systems, and software and algorithm development, alongside commercial and business development roles.
Quantum computers can be built on several physical platforms — superconducting circuits, neutral atoms, trapped ions, silicon spin qubits and photonics. Photonic, or “optical,” architectures are increasingly seen as the most credible route to combining large-scale deployment with practical, real-world use.
This view rests on three properties. Optical systems operate at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, substantially reducing the energy consumption and control-system complexity associated with approaches that require cryogenic environments. They also support clock speeds in the hundreds of terahertz, and are natively compatible with the optical communications infrastructure already deployed worldwide — a decisive advantage for networking quantum systems and integrating them into existing data centers.
OptQC was founded in September 2024, commercializing more than 25 years of optical quantum computing research led by the Furusawa Laboratory at the Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo. The Company's work is embedded in Japan's national innovation agenda: its “10,000-qubit-input optical quantum computer” proposal was selected under NEDO's Program for the Enhanced Infrastructures for Post-5G Information and Communication Systems, and OptQC participates in JST's Moonshot Research and Development Program (Goal 6: Realization of a Fault-Tolerant Universal Quantum Computer).
The development roadmap is staged. The first demonstration system, prioritizing stable operation, was unveiled in July 2026 at the Global Research Center for Quantum-AI Technology (G-QuAT) within Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and is now operational — a milestone that moves OptQC from laboratory results to a running machine. A system optimized for computational speed will follow, and then a system optimized for quantum performance. The next-generation machine targets approximately 10,000 qubits, roughly 100× the computational performance of the current system.
Over the past twelve months OptQC has been included in Toyo Keizai's “Amazing Startups 100 (2025 edition)” in the Telecommunications and Internet category, named a World Economic Forum 2026 Technology Pioneer, and selected for Forbes JAPAN's “Top 100 Japanese Startups to Watch 2026.” Together with a rapidly expanding roster of corporate partnerships — including the capital and business alliance with NTT — this recognition underpins the conviction behind the Series A2 round.
Kan Takase, Representative Director and CEO, OptQC Corp.:
I am delighted to announce this major financing round at the two-year mark since our founding. I am deeply honored that, in addition to the venture capital firms that have supported us since our seed round, we have now been joined by leading companies across a wide range of industries — telecommunications, electronics, aerospace, precision instruments, finance and real estate. Our collaboration with NTT, in particular, has deepened on both the technology and business fronts since last year, and having NTT join us as lead investor gives us significant momentum. We will invest this capital in securing talent and in developing our next-generation processor, following our first-generation machine, “MoQuren,” announced recently, to further advance the real-world application of optical quantum computing.
OptQC Corp. is a deep-tech startup building sustainable, next-generation computing infrastructure powered by optical quantum technology. Founded in September 2024 on more than 25 years of research at the University of Tokyo's Furusawa Laboratory, the Tokyo-based company takes an integrated approach to research, development and business to accelerate the practical application of quantum technology in global markets. Following a JPY 7.0 billion (approx. US$47 million) Series A2 round led by NTT, Inc., OptQC's cumulative funding — including prior rounds and public grants — exceeds JPY 20.0 billion (approx. US$133 million).
Company name: OptQC Corp.
Headquarters: 15F, IT tower TOKYO, 3-28-13 Nishi-Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo 171-0021, Japan
Representative: Kan Takase, Representative Director and CEO
Founded: September 2, 2024
Business: Research, development and provision of optical quantum computers
Website : https://www.optqc.com/en/
OptQC Corp. — Public Relations
press@optqc.com
