Peter Sarlin’s QuTwo is valued at $380 million in angel round

QuTwothe Finnish AI lab founded by former AMD Silo AI CEO Peter Saarlin, is now valued at €325 million (about $380 million) after raising €25 million ($29 million). It is a sign of continuing tailwinds for artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and sovereign technology, especially for European-made companies.

The name QuTwo is a reference to quantum computing, but it is not limited to quantum computing. Its core product, QuTwo OS, is an orchestration layer that routes tasks to classical, quantum, or hybrid architectures — with the idea that enterprise use cases are often better served by “quantum-inspired” computing, which uses classical chips to emulate quantum behavior on more reliable hardware.

Enterprise AI will be QuTwo’s bread and butter. The company has already secured about $23 million in committed revenue thanks to design partnerships with the likes of retail giant Zalando, which has helped develop its AI assistants. “AI is the north star that we will continue to target. Quantum is just a new type of computing,” said Sarlin, who insists that QuTwo is a North Star. It is an artificial intelligence company.

Momentum has been building around AI labs in Europe, and several have become unicorns overnight. Just last week, former DeepMind researcher David Silver took home $1.1 billion for his new endeavor. Indescribable intelligence. QuTwo’s valuation and ring size are fairly modest in comparison, but will allow it to pursue its roadmap under less pressure.

According to Sarlin, who serves as CEO of QuTwo, this was a decision he also made for his previous company, Silo AI, which AMD acquired AMD for $665 million In 2024. “I had a lot of investors who wanted to put a lot of money into making Silo part of OpenAI in Europe, but I didn’t believe in that game,” he told TechCrunch.

The main difference is that QuTwo wants the freedom to think long term, with a horizon of five to ten years. “We are on a mission to build the world’s leading AI company for the next model, because Europe has not succeeded in building the AI ​​company for this era,” Sarlin said.

This is not to say that Sarlin is pessimistic about European AI, of which he is a prolific supporter. He’s also not necessarily critical of very large rounds, volunteering that he’s also an investor in them Ami Labs of Yann LeCunany It raised $1.03 billionAnd in the British-American recursive superintelligence project, which is It is rumored to follow the same path. But he didn’t see a $1 billion round as the ideal solution for QuTwo, nor VC money, at least for now.

Until recently, QuTwo was funded solely by Sarlin’s family office. postscripttomwhich she also embraced For pregnancythe other company where he serves as Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors. But while NestAI It raised about $115 million In a financing round led by the Finnish sovereign fund and Nokia, QuTwo was not seeking to raise external financing.

However, when the lab’s soft launch generated significant interest earlier this year, Sarlin decided he would say no to checks from venture capital firms and strategic investors, but yes to an angel round partly due to the geopolitical moment Europe is currently experiencing.

Increasingly with Europe It looks to favor domestic alternatives to US technology providersThere are tailwinds for artificial intelligence made in Finland. But there is also investor appetite for a company that promises to facilitate more ambitious R&D initiatives in areas where the region already has strong players, such as the automotive, life sciences and gaming sectors.

Conversely, Sarlin expects QuTwo’s angel investors to be able to open doors across Europe. There are certainly quite a few introductions he could ask for from this group, which includes Yuri Milner, Xavier Neal, Nico Rosberg, Dieter Schwarz, and Niklas Zennström, as well as several startup founders from Hugging Space, Legora, Miro, Skype, Supercell, Wolt, and more.

This will also support QuTwo’s growth. They recently expanded to Sweden and are hiring. According to Sarlin, about 50 quantum and AI scientists have joined the team, which includes two other entrepreneurs for the second time: its former Silo founder, Kaj Mikael Björk; And Quan Yin Tan, one of the founders of the Finnish company IQM, which specializes in the quantum field It is set to go public.

QuTwo’s connection with IQM is also a reminder that the company believes we are about to enter the quantum era, but it can’t wait. “The question for repeat founders like us is how can we have greater impact,” Sarlin said. “In the long term, it is important for Europe that we build the next model AI company outside of Europe. But in the short term, we can have a significant impact in driving ambitious R&D projects in Europe.”