How IQM became the global leader in full-stack quantum computers

In 2016, quantum computing was taking off in the USA. Quantum was escaping the academic side with giants like IBM launching its first commercial quantum computer and Google starting to build its own quantum machines. Meanwhile, in Munich, Germany, Jan Goetz, now the Co-CEO and Co-founder of IQM Quantum Computers, was more preoccupied with his academic career than worrying about the quantum business bottom line.

After finishing his PhD in low-temperature physics in 2017, Goetz seized the opportunity to work at Aalto University's QCD labs for Aalto Professor Mikko Möttönen. Little did Goetz know that his immigration to Espoo, Finland, would not only transform his life and professional career but also be a catalyst for one of the most significant chapters in Finnish quantum computing history. In about a year, he would go on to co-found IQM, the global leader in full-stack quantum computers.

Half a century of quantum history on IQM's side

Few places can boast of having as illustrious a history in quantum technology development as Espoo. Low-temperature research was done at Aalto University (then HUT) in Otaniemi, Espoo, as early as the 1960s. About a decade later, the world's first super-refrigerator was manufactured at the university's campus. When IQM was founded in 2018, about two hundred researchers were already working in the field of quantum computing in Otaniemi. In addition to the history and human resources, IQM could also tap into the ecosystem's infrastructure from day one by utilising the processes and IP developed in VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland's cleanroom facility at Micronova.

"We didn't start from zero. We had our own strong quantum research background, and there was already a very strong research foundation in the community. Then, when we told our network of researchers that we were starting a company, and we'd like them to join us, people were super-interested," says Goetz.

IQM seized momentum from the get-go by bringing together a team of about twenty employees with strong scientific backgrounds and raising over €11 million in a seed round, which was one of the largest seed investments in Finland at the time. But despite the great start, IQM had plenty of ground to cover with the global competition having had a head start.

"We knew we were starting late, so we had to run super-fast to make it. But we had the best people, we were very strongly capitalised, and we had a high ambition level of saying, okay, we want to become a global leader. And this has always been the mindset."

Taking over the global full-stack quantum computing narrative

While IQM's story of becoming the global leader in quantum computing has become a seminal piece of Finnish deep tech lore, the moment when the decision to found the company was made involved no grand gestures or great drama. Instead, it was characteristic of the delightfully prosaic manner in which many startup success stories have come to life in Espoo's deep tech community: After long, diligent research, one scientist asks a question to another. And, before they know it, they're embarking on a successful startup journey.  

"After my postdoc time, I was thinking about leaving Finland. But then Mikko Möttönen asked me whether I'd be interested in starting a company with him and staying in Espoo. I was like, okay, that sounds interesting," Goetz recalls.

IQM soon spun out of Aalto University, and while the origin story may not have been riveting, the company's vision was big from day one: to become the global leader in its field. A vision that the team has always known they could achieve.

In 2021, IQM delivered its first quantum computer to VTT at Micronova. From there, IQM started its ascent to the top of the quantum computer marketplace: first, expanding and selling quantum systems around Europe, and then, making significant deals in the APAC region and the USA. In September 2025, IQM raised the biggest quantum funding round outside of the US to date, $320 million in Series B funding, which took the company's funding total to €600 million.

Seizing strong footholds in markets like the USA, Japan, and Korea, Goetz says, is just the beginning. A beginning in terms of having a global presence and the leading status in the field. But also, a beginning of truly learning what it means from a service, supplier, and delivery perspective to do further expansion activities in the regions.

In less than a decade, IQM has written a seminal chapter in the more than half-century history of Finnish quantum computing. Now, the company is taking over the quantum narrative on a global scale.