Orange Quantum Systems (OrangeQS), a quantum technology company based in the Netherlands, has raised €12 million (US$12.84 million) in seed funding.

The funding round, completed on June 17, was led by Icecat Capital and included contributions from Cottonwood Technology Fund, QBeat Ventures, QDNL Participations, and InnovationQuarter Capital.

The company plans to use the funds to develop advanced testing equipment for quantum chips. This initiative aims to meet the increasing demand for scalable and precise testing solutions as quantum computing hardware evolves.

This seed funding round marks the largest investment of its kind in the Netherlands’ quantum sector to date. OrangeQS intends to use the funding to address production bottlenecks in quantum chip manufacturing.

The goal is to enhance the reliability of qubits as part of the ongoing development in quantum computing.

OrangeQS’s primary product, OrangeQS MAX, is designed for high-throughput testing of quantum chips. It is currently used by IQM, a leading quantum computer manufacturer located in Espoo, Finland.

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🔗 Source: Orange Quantum Systems

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Quantum testing infrastructure is critical for industry scaling

OrangeQS’s €12M seed round reflects a broader trend of infrastructure investment that’s essential for quantum computing’s commercial viability.

The global quantum computing market is projected to grow from $1.13 billion in 2024 to $18.12 billion by 2035 1, but this growth depends on solving fundamental scaling challenges.

OrangeQS specifically targets testing bottlenecks, reducing characterization time from weeks to days, which addresses a critical barrier that major quantum players face as they work to develop more complex chips.

This parallels how semiconductor testing equipment became a critical enabler for classical computing’s growth, with the company positioning itself as essential infrastructure rather than competing directly with quantum hardware developers.

The company’s customer base (including IQM, Berkeley Lab, and QuTech) demonstrates how testing solutions serve both commercial and research applications across the quantum computing ecosystem.

2️⃣ Quantum error correction drives demand for advanced testing solutions

OrangeQS’s focus on precise quantum chip testing aligns with one of the industry’s most fundamental challenges: achieving reliable quantum error correction.

Industry developments like Microsoft’s Majorana 1 chip and Google’s Willow processor represent significant advances in error correction and stability 2, but these advances require increasingly sophisticated testing equipment.

The “quantum equivalent of Moore’s Law” mentioned by OrangeQS connects to error correction challenges, as companies need to simultaneously increase qubit counts while maintaining or improving error rates.

Testing solutions have become particularly critical as quantum processors grow more complex. IBM’s progression from 127-qubit Eagle to 433-qubit Osprey processors 3 demonstrates how rapidly the testing challenge is scaling.

As quantum chips become more complex, standardized testing becomes essential for consistent performance measurement and comparison across different quantum computing approaches.

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