Where is QC Design headquartered?

QC Design is headquartered in Ulm, Germany. The company has a team of 11-50 people.

What does QC Design do?

QC Design operates in the AI Infrastructure sector. QC Design builds purpose-built AI (Meridian) and hardware-realistic simulation software (Plaquette) that help quantum hardware teams design fault-tolerant quantum computers faster and cheaper. Replaces costly in-house fault-tolerance design tooling with AI-driven architecture exploration (Meridian) validated against realistic hardware imperfections (Plaquette), cutting logical error rates and accelerating time-to-fault-tolerance for quantum hardware manufacturers.

When was QC Design founded?

QC Design was founded in 2021. It is based in Ulm, Germany.

Who is the CEO of QC Design?

Dr. Ish Dhand is the CEO of QC Design. The company was founded in 2021.

Where is QC Design located?

QC Design is headquartered in Ulm, Germany.

What funding stage is QC Design at?

QC Design is currently at the Active stage.

How many employees does QC Design have?

QC Design has approximately 11-50 employees.

QC Design

Category: AI Infrastructure

QC Design builds purpose-built AI (Meridian) and hardware-realistic simulation software (Plaquette) that help quantum hardware teams design fault-tolerant quantum computers faster and cheaper. QC Design was founded in 2021. The company is led by Dr. Ish Dhand. Based in Ulm, Germany. Team size: 11-50. Total funding raised: $4.4M. Latest round: Grant. Key investors include Quantonation, European Innovation Council (EIC Accelerator / EISMEA), Vsquared Ventures, Salvia GmbH.

Founded: 2021
Headquarters: Ulm, Germany
Team size: 11-50
Total funding: $4.4M

Value proposition

Replaces costly in-house fault-tolerance design tooling with AI-driven architecture exploration (Meridian) validated against realistic hardware imperfections (Plaquette), cutting logical error rates and accelerating time-to-fault-tolerance for quantum hardware manufacturers.

Products and solutions

Meridian (AI system for fault-tolerant architecture design and logical qubit optimization), Plaquette (Clifford & beyond-Clifford quantum error-correction simulator, on-prem deployable), Gauge (Plaquette extension estimating best-possible error-correction performance under realistic noise)

Unique value

Only vendor combining purpose-built generative/search AI for fault-tolerant architecture design with a dedicated hardware-realistic error-correction simulator, validated by 10x+ reduction in logical error rates over published/general-purpose AI methods across 100+ design tasks.

Target customer

Quantum hardware companies and research labs building fault-tolerant quantum computers (superconducting, photonic, trapped-ion, neutral-atom platforms)

Industries served

Quantum Computing Hardware / Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing

Technology advantage

Proprietary AI system (Meridian) trained/tuned specifically for fault-tolerant quantum architecture search space, paired with Plaquette's library of 20+ real hardware imperfection models and QLDPC/other error-correction code libraries — demonstrated outperformance vs. general-purpose AI and published academic methods.

How they differentiate

Focuses specifically on fault-tolerant architecture design (codes, circuits, logical qubit layouts) validated under hardware-specific realistic noise models, rather than general quantum error-correction decoding (Riverlane) or quantum control/pulse-level optimization (Q-CTRL); claims 10x+ lower logical error rates than published methods and general-purpose AI in head-to-head benchmarks.

Main competitors

Riverlane (quantum error correction software/decoders), Q-CTRL (quantum control & error suppression software), Classiq (quantum software/circuit design automation)

Key partnerships

C12, QuiX Quantum, Yaqumo, ZuriQ, Quantum Source, QUDORA, Q-CTRL (error suppression collaboration), pilot/customer relationships with multiple quantum hardware manufacturers across superconducting/photonic/neutral-atom platforms

Notable customers

C12, QuiX Quantum, Yaqumo, ZuriQ, Quantum Source, QUDORA, PsiQuantum

Major milestones

2021: Founded by Ish Dhand & Martin Plenio, 2023-06: Launched fault-tolerant architecture licensing / exited stealth, 2024-07: Selected for EIC Accelerator, secured €4M funding, 2024: German Startup Award (Newcomer of the Year), 2026-06: Presented at Q2B26 Tokyo, 2026-09: Published Meridian white paper showing 10x+ logical error reduction across 100+ tasks (VentureBeat/TheQuantumInsider coverage).

Growth metrics

White paper reports Meridian achieving >10x reduction in median logical error rates vs. published methods across 100+ quantum design tasks; multiple named pilot customers (C12, QuiX Quantum, Yaqumo, ZuriQ, Quantum Source, QUDORA) added 2023-2026.

Market positioning

Niche B2B deep-tech vendor selling design-automation software licenses to quantum hardware manufacturers (analogous to EDA tools for classical chip design, applied to quantum fault tolerance).

Geographic focus

Global, with concentration among European and North American quantum hardware startups/labs

About Dr. Ish Dhand

PhD, University of Calgary (Quantum City); quantum computing researcher and former quantum architecture researcher prior to co-founding QC Design in 2021.

Latest news about QC Design

QC Design Reports Meridian Cuts Logical Errors in Quantum Design Tasks

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Official website: https://qc.design