El Español article focuses on specific achievements of Qilimanjaro: the practical applications leading to the quantum computing of the future. Named as a “pioneer” in developing scalable algorithms and processors, already combined with the current computing platforms, Qilimanjaro aims at accelerating and optimizing the production processes of companies.

These advancements will allow practical market gain and, according to its founders, Qilimanjaro will be able to offer access to its quantum computing platform via the cloud later this year, bringing the new technology to be reached by many.

The fundamental advantage of Qilimanjaro is twofold, represented by its founders and its team. 

Its initial founders are “three quantum physicists from Barcelona, three friends who worked in different centers, with complementary skills and with long professional stages in Holland, Switzerland, the United States and Canada, among other countries” comments Victor Canivell, co-founder of Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech. 

The integrated hardware and software team is focusing on high-quality qubit (quantum bit) architectures, which tackle hard computing problems, impossible for conventional computing architectures.

Qilimanjaro presents many advantages. Thus, recently, StartUs Insights, a platform for innovation, technologies and start-ups, has highlighted the company as one of the five most relevant in the quantum sector this year, among a total of 264 companies worldwide.

“Our quantum computers provide solutions to specific problems aimed at process optimization and, therefore, we offer cross-cutting solutions to many sectors, from logistics to finance,” Victor Canivell, Qilimanjaro co-founder.

Going back to its founders, the company’s innovative disruption lies in the relation and access it has to first-class research systems from the very beginning, both in terms of facilities and instrumentation. “With the BSC, for example, we have access to the Mare Nostrum supercomputer, where we carry out our simulations” Victor Canivell points out as a real luxury. 

These academic experience and relations behind the company also facilitated having early large clients: the French logistics company Stuart and an Abu Dhabi firm. “We helped them find the profile of suitable candidates, set up the structure of the laboratory and manufactured the quantum computer, which is already up and running” Victor Canivell explains.

Public grants of almost one million euros were obtained at the end of 2021, through the Missions and NEOTEC programs of the Center for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI), and other smaller ones from AGAUR (Agency for the Management of University and Research Grants) and the Ministry of Science and Innovation.  These were added to the one million euros invoiced in 2021 from customers.  The main objective of the grants have been to continue developing the technology and improve the laboratory facilities.

The main hurdles of developing a quantum computer are the qubits, the technology itself. The qubit needs a temperature close to absolute zero to function properly. Chips based on this technology “are very fragile and extremely complicated to build” , points out Victor Canivell. This technology and its applications still account for an unimaginable future, with the security of the quantum systems as an important issue to address in the near future.

For the time being, Qilimanjaro has become a leader in offering algorithmic solutions and quantum computing laboratory installation services to its customers. It is a first step in the application of this disruptive technology, which opens the door to the acceleration of production processes that were unthinkable until now.

You can find the full article here (in Spanish).