Quantum computing enters 2026 with momentum and scrutiny. Headlines in late 2025 pointed to real traction: early applications in logistics and AI, analyst coverage of quantum hardware companies, and national strategies placing quantum at the centre of industrial policy. But behind the optimism, a harder question is taking shape. Not just who can build qubits, but who can build a system that scales.
Because in quantum, scale becomes physical. Qubits take up space. Wiring takes up more. That’s before we even get to the cooling systems. The larger the system, the more the architecture matters.
That’s what makes Photonic’s announcement of a $180m CAD ($130m USD) first close of its latest round, a timely moment. Its very name is inspired by its architecture, using light, or photons, as the communication medium. The company’s silicon spin qubit platform, connected by telecom-band photons, is an architecture designed for modular scaling from the start. In November 2025, that approach was selected for Stage B of DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, joining a shortlist of companies now tasked with proving whether their systems can reach utility scale. In December of the same year, Photonic was selected in the Canadian Quantum Champions Program (CQCP), receiving up to $23m in funding for phase 1.
“You can’t scale a quantum computer by just making it bigger. You have to design for it. Photonic’s architecture is the first I’ve seen that really does that.”
— Hermann Hauser, Amadeus co-founder and Venture Partner
We backed Photonic early. This latest milestone is a chance to explain what makes their design different and why it matters now.
1. Photonic’s quantum architecture is Entanglement First™
This ensures how those qubits will connect, across distance, without collapsing quantum information.
“Entanglement means two qubits become one. That’s the unique quantum property that gives quantum computers an advantage over classical computing.”
— Hermann Hauser
Photonic’s approach is built around telecom-band photons that distribute entanglement between silicon spin qubits, even when those qubits are in separate cryostats. That makes it possible to link smaller modules into a single, larger system.
This is not a theoretical goal. In collaboration with Microsoft’s Azure Quantum, Photonic has already demonstrated a teleported CNOT gate between two physically separated spin qubits using fibre optics.
That kind of remote operation is essential if the future of quantum computing looks more like a data centre than a lab bench.
2. It’s modular by design — not monolithic
Many quantum machines get bigger by adding more qubits into a single environment. That creates serious problems: thermal loads, wiring complexity, and calibration overheads.
Photonic flips that logic. Instead of scaling one device, it builds many manageable modules, then uses light to connect them into a larger system.
“It’s the most scalable architecture I’ve seen. You don’t need to build a super-cryostat with thousands of qubits. You just connect small units — and that’s what makes it plausible and affordable.”
— Hermann Hauser
This modular approach is what Photonic calls Entanglement First™: a design where connections between qubits are not a late-stage integration problem, but the central mechanism for growth.
3. It avoids bottlenecks others can’t escape
Some approaches are already running into physical constraints. Hermann points to the sheer size and engineering complexity of building monolithic machines.
“If you try to scale with one device, the footprint becomes massive. I’ve seen approaches that would need a hall full of cryostats. That’s not practical.”
— Hermann Hauser
Photonic’s use of standard telecom infrastructure — including fibre and wavelength bands that already work with classical networking equipment — gives it an advantage in interoperability, and a lower barrier to future deployment.
This makes it easier to imagine how quantum might scale in real-world settings: not exotic one-off machines, but distributed networks with known hardware dependencies.
4. It targets the right milestones
Photonic is not chasing qubit counts. It’s focused on what actually matters: reliable, error-tolerant operations, performed repeatedly.
This aligns with a broader shift in the field. The most useful performance metric now is quantum operations (QuOps); how many meaningful operations a system can run before noise destroys coherence.
“The right metric is MegaQuOps — per second, per watt, per pound. That’s what people will care about. Not how many qubits are in the machine.”
— Hermann Hauser
That framing is also being advanced by Riverlane, another Amadeus-backed quantum company, which is working to establish QuOps as a standard benchmarking tool for real-world performance.
Photonic’s architecture is optimised for this kind of measurement: it supports scaling, repeatability and connectivity from the start.
5. It’s aligned with how the field is evolving
Photonic’s selection for Stage B of DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative matters because it confirms something the team has believed from the start: that the industry’s future depends on utility-scale systems — ones that can deliver computational value greater than their cost.
Photonic’s technology was submitted under “optically linked silicon spin qubits”, and its progress will now be evaluated through rigorous prototype planning and system-level testing.
That gives the company the structure and scrutiny its roadmap is ready for.
Why we backed Photonic early
Photonic first came onto our radar through previous Amadeus Partner, Alex van Someren, who led Amadeus’s initial investment and recognised the strength of the team’s technical foundations; particularly their early work connecting silicon spin qubits to telecom-band photons. His support helped lay the groundwork for what has become one of the most credible architectural approaches in the field.
That conviction was later reinforced by Hermann Hauser, who highlights three enduring reasons we chose to back the company:
“What stood out about Photonic was that they had all three things we look for. Proprietary technology with a clear architectural advantage. A team that understands both the physics and what it takes to build. And a large market opportunity, from secure communications to quantum simulation. It’s rare to see all of that come together in one company, especially this early.”
Today, the investment is managed by Hermann and Dr. Manjari Chandran-Ramesh, Partner at Amadeus; who brings expertise in deep tech commercialisation and scientific ventures. We continue to support Photonic because its core focus remains unchanged: that scalable quantum computing depends not just on qubit quality, but on system-level design choices made early and executed well.
Its inclusion in DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative marks an important milestone; not just for Photonic, but for the idea that architecture matters. In quantum, not everything that works in the lab will work at scale. Photonic is one of the few teams showing how it could.
