William Hurley, known as Whurley, photo by John Davidson.
William Hurley, known as Whurley, the company’s founder and CEO previously announced the company had raised $4 million when the company made its public debut at South by Southwest Interactive in Austin.
Just recently, Strangeworks sent out a press release with more details on the funding. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round with additional investors including Ecliptic Capital, which is Whurley’s investment firm. Other investors included GreatPoint Ventures, Lux Capital, BoxGroup and Amplify Partners. Indivudal investors included Bob Beauchamp, chairman of the board of BMC Software; Charles Stonehill, chairman of the board of Julius Baer Group AG and board member of AXA Equitable Holdings Inc.; and Jon Soberg, who led the seed round in the previous company led by Strangeworks founder Hurley, Honest Dollar, which was acquired by Goldman Sachs.
Strangeworks is focused on quantum computing. It plans to design and deliver tools for software developers and researchers and others in the technology industry. It is targeting applications in the aerospace, energy, finance and pharmaceuticals industries.
Others on the Strangeworks executive team include Justin Youens, David Cardona, and several additional members of the original Honest Dollar team.
“I’ve been working with whurley and the Strangeworks team for several months now, and I’m confident that their approach to building a business around quantum and other forms of unconventional computing is the most audacious and forward-thinking I’ve seen,” Adam Goldberg, partner at Lightspeed, said in a news release. “Strangeworks has enormous potential and I’m excited that Lightspeed has partnered with such an accomplished team.”
“We are at the dawn of the commercial quantum era, and by combining an experienced team with a smart go to market approach, Strangeworks is well positioned to lead in this fast-growing industry,” Ray Lane, managing partner, GreatPoint Ventures, said in a news release. “Our investment in whurley and his team expresses our confidence in their leadership of this nascent industry.”
“I led the seed round in Honest Dollar, which has brought retirement products to a grossly underserved market and is thriving at Goldman Sachs after the very good exit,” Jon Soberg said in a news release. “Strangeworks is doing something similar by making a rare and valuable resource – quantum computing in this case – available to more people who can benefit from it. I’m proud and excited to work with whurley, Justin, David, and the team again.”
Strangeworks has parnterships in place with IBM Q Network, a worldwide community dedicated to advancing quantum computing, Stack Overflow which together launched Quantum Computing Stack Exchange, a question and answer site for engineers, scientists, programmers, and computing professionals interested in quantum. And it partnered with the European Organization for Nuclear Research to create the CERN Entrepreneurship Student Programme that will send ten Master’s students for a five-week residency at CERN this summer.
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