Rahko

Rahko is a London-based quantum machine learning (QML) company that is developing a platform for chemical simulations. The company was founded in 2018 by Leonard Wossnig, Edward Grant, Miriam Cha, and Ian Horobin.Wossnig and Grant were collaborators during their PhDs at University College London. They had been working on research in quantum machine learning (QML) with now lead developers Shuxiang Cao and Hongxiang Chen.

Quantum Computing offers greater computational power compared to classical machines, however Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) computers struggle to perform useful applications due to high error rates. Research by Rahko and other teams have shown QML to be resilient to high noise error issues and have the potential for meaningful work to be achieved using NISQ computers. Rahko’s team focuses on 2nd generation QML algorithms, ‘parametrized quantum circuits’ that can be trained like deep learning models and be highly robust to noise.

Chemical simulation is the immediate research area for Rahko's QML technology. Chemical simulations take time consuming and expensive research, in areas including chemical engineering, drug discovery and material science, out of the lab and onto a computer. Chemical simulation using QML allows for the development of batteries, superconductors, therapeutic drugs, solar technologies, and advanced materials, among others.

Rahko originates from UCL’s Computer Science programme, supported by Conception X, a venture builder for deep tech startups. Rahko's partners include IBM, Microsoft, the Nvidia Innovation program, Amazon Web Services Activate program, and the Quantum Business Network (QBN).

Hyrax is Rahko's platform that utilizes a proptietary pipeline for the integration of quantum and classical hardware with QML algorithms. With Hyrax, Rahko work with customers on commercially valuable problems in chemical simulation that were previously impossible to solve with classical computers. Hyrax allows clients to rapidly test and prototype algorithms, and efficiently access the best available quantum computers.

The platform has a high level python interface and is hardware agnostic, it can be integrated with multiple backends including IBM Qiskit, Google Cirq, Rigetti Forest and TensorFlow.

On October 11th, 2019, Rahko raised $1.6M in a Seed round led by Balderton Capital with participation from private investors Charles Songhurst (former Microsoft head of Corporate Strategy), Tom McInerney (founder, TGM Ventures), John Spindler (CEO, Capital Enterprise) and James Field (CEO, LabGenius).