EuroHPC Joint Undertaking Selects 13 European QPU Startups for Quantum Grand Challenge

The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) Governing Board has officially approved Decision No. 31/2026, selecting 13 European quantum computing startups under the Quantum Grand Challenge call (HORIZON-JU-EUROHPC-2026-QGC-02 ). The selected companies receive Phase 1 Coordination and Support Action (CSA) funding as a preliminary milestone to establish technical proof-of-concepts, creating a direct pathway to unlock up to €30 million each in venture debt financing through the European Investment Bank (EIB) under Phase 2. | [ EuroHPC JU Quantum Grand Challenge Main List Winners ] | || |---|---|---| | Startup & Project Acronym | Country & Duration | Hardware Modality & Focus Area | | • Alice & Bob (CAT-DRIVE) | • France (4 Months) | • Cat Qubits / Superconducting FTQC | | • eleQtron (MAGICMAPPING) | • Germany (4 Months) | • Trapped-Ion Processing Units | | • Equal 1 Laboratories (BLUE) | • Ireland (4 Months) | • Silicon-Spin CMOS QPU Acceleration | | • Groove Quantum (MusIQ) | • Netherlands (4 Months) | • Quantum Software & Algorithms | | • IQM (QC-Stride) | • Finland (4 Months) | • On-Premise Superconducting QPUs | | • NVISION Imaging (QOSMOS) | • Germany (4 Months) | • Quantum Sensing & Hyperpolarization | | • Planckian (SQALE) | • Italy (4 Months) | • Solid-State Quantum Battery / Architectures | | • Qilimanjaro (EuroQ-Stack) | • Spain (4 Months) | • Analog Superconducting QPU Stack | | • Quandela (EUROSPOQC) | • France (4 Months) | • Photonic Quantum Processing | | • QUDORA Technologies (NEQTAR) | • Germany (4 Months) | • Trapped-Ion Architecture Scaling | | • QuiX Quantum (Quix) | • Netherlands (4 Months) | • Photonic Quantum Hardware | | • QUOBLY (QRUX) | • France (4 Months) | • Silicon Spin-Qubit Integration | | • Sparrow Quantum (EU-SCALE) | • Denmark (4 Months) | • Photonic Single-Photon Sources | Gateway to InvestEU and EIB Venture Debt Financing The call evaluated 27 eligible proposals submitted by European quantum hardware and software providers. While Phase 1 awards approximately €300,000 per project (~€3.87 million total cumulative EU contribution for the main list), selection serves as the administrative prerequisite for sovereign European industrial scaling: - Phase 2 Capital Pipeline: Startups that complete Phase 1 technical and business milestones qualify to apply for up to €30 million in individual EIB Venture Debt financing from a dedicated €100 million InvestEU pool. - Supercomputing Integration: Selected hardware modalities—spanning cat-state superconducting, silicon-spin CMOS, trapped-ion, photonic, and analog processors—will be integrated into EuroHPC supercomputing centers across Europe. - Reserve List Allocations: Secondary proposals placed on the official reserve list include C12 Quantum Electronics (CARBON-Q, France), neQxt GmbH (STAQ, Germany), and PASQAL (CONSTELLATION, France). The selection reinforces the European Union’s strategy to maintain technological sovereignty in high-performance computing (HPC) and quantum acceleration under Regulation (EU) 2021/1173. Review the official decision document on EuroHPC JU here, inspect company roadmap updates via Sparrow Quantum here. August 26, 2026 Leave A Comment