QC Design
QC Design builds Plaquette, an enterprise software platform that simulates and optimizes fault-tolerant quantum computing architectures under realistic hardware noise, serving quantum hardware manufacturers and FTQC research teams across superconducting, neutral atom, trapped-ion, spin-qubit, and photonic modalities via annual subscriptions.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2021
- HeadquartersNeu-ulm, Germany
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What QC Design does
QC Design GmbH is a private German deep-tech software company founded in 2021 and headquartered in Ulm, Germany. The company develops Plaquette, a design-automation platform for fault-tolerant quantum computing (FTQC) that simulates, analyzes, and optimizes quantum error correction architectures under realistic hardware noise models. Plaquette distinguishes itself from open-source alternatives such as Stim by modeling 20+ hardware imperfections — including leakage, coherent over-rotation, motional heating, fusion failures, and charge noise — across all major quantum hardware modalities (superconducting qubits, neutral atoms, trapped ions, spin qubits, and photonic systems). The platform offers five simulator backends (including Stim, XPauli, Near-Clifford, full-state CPU, and a GPU-accelerated full-state backend built on NVIDIA cuQuantum), an extensive library of QEC codes (surface, LDPC, Bacon-Shor, foliated photonic, etc.), platform-specific error models, automated threshold-plot generation, and on-premises deployment for IP protection. A complementary Python sub-product, Gauge, computes optimal error thresholds by mapping decoding problems to statistical-mechanical spin models.
QC Design sells exclusively to enterprise customers — primarily quantum hardware manufacturers and FTQC research teams — through a consultative direct-sales motion featuring pilot programs followed by annual subscriptions. Pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed, with on-premises licensing emphasized to protect customer IP around proprietary error models, decoders, and codes. The go-to-market is content-led (technical blog, practitioners mailing list, LinkedIn) supplemented by direct demo requests. Named customers and pilots span five hardware modalities and four countries (Germany, France, Switzerland, Israel), including C12, QuiX Quantum, Yaqumo, ZuriQ, Quantum Source, QUDORA, PsiQuantum, Aegiq, Sygaldry, and JGU. Revenue mechanics are subscription-recurring with annual billing and no usage-based component disclosed.
The company has raised approximately €4M from the EIC Accelerator (grant) plus undisclosed amounts from venture investors A.VSquared, Quantonation, Salvia, PhotonQ, and the German Federal Ministry. Leadership comprises CEO Dr. Ish Dhand, CTO Dr. Shreya P Kumar, Scientific Advisor Prof. Martin B Plenio, and Board member Dr. Lise Rechsteiner. The company is at an early commercial stage with 1-10 employees and a hardware-vertical-specific customer base of quantum computing companies.
QC Design firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- QC Design
- Legal name
- QC Design GmbH
- Website
- https://qc.design
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2021
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- QC Design builds Plaquette, an enterprise software platform that simulates and optimizes fault-tolerant quantum computing architectures under realistic hardware noise, serving quantum hardware manufacturers and FTQC research teams across superconducting, neutral atom, trapped-ion, spin-qubit, and photonic modalities via annual subscriptions.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
QC Design industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Quantum Computing Software
- NAICS
- Industrial Design Services (54142)
- SIC
- Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Quantum Circuit Design, Visualization & Workflow Tools (HDAGACAD)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- QCaaS Platforms & Developer Portals (HDAGAIAB), Quantum Error Correction, Fault Tolerance & Quantum Information Theory (HDAGAMAD), Fault-Tolerant Gate Sets & Logical Operations (transversal, lattice surgery, magic-state) (HDAGAJAB)
Keywords
Where QC Design is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Neu-ulm
- HQ country
- Germany
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices1 record
Markets served
QC Design business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Software Subscriptions: Plaquette is offered as a subscription-based software license. Customers receive access to the software suite, support from fault-tolerance experts, and regular updates with new features and codes. Pricing is quote-based, likely varying by organization size and deployment type.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Annual | Enterprise subscription with pilot option |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels1 record
Marketing channels5 records
QC Design product offering
Product offeringCore offering
QC Design develops Plaquette, a design-automation software platform for fault-tolerant quantum computing. The software enables quantum hardware teams to simulate, analyze, and optimize logical qubit designs under realistic hardware noise, modeling 20+ hardware imperfections across multiple platforms. It is targeted at quantum hardware companies and research institutions developing fault-tolerant quantum computers.
Product overview
QC Design offers a unified platform centered on Plaquette, a comprehensive fault-tolerance design-automation software suite. Plaquette serves as the primary product, providing simulation, analysis, and optimization of quantum error correction architectures across all major quantum hardware platforms. The portfolio includes Gauge as a complementary Python package for threshold computation. Together, these products enable quantum hardware teams to design scalable fault-tolerant quantum computers by modeling realistic hardware imperfections and generating threshold plots to identify optimal architectural choices.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Plaquette: Essential design software for quantum hardware teams - Clifford and beyond-Clifford simulators for accurate modelling, vast library of fault-tolerance codes and decoders, extensive error model library for all platforms.
- Gauge
Products and services
- Plaquette Plaquette is a design-automation software for quantum hardware teams that simulates, analyzes, and optimizes logical qubit designs under realistic hardware noise. It models 20+ hardware imperfections across multiple quantum platforms, supports five simulator backends (Stim, XPauli, Near-Clifford, Full-state CPU, Full-state GPU), integrates with NVIDIA cuQuantum for GPU acceleration, and provides a comprehensive library of quantum error-correcting codes. The product is intended for quantum hardware companies and research teams developing fault-tolerant quantum computers.
- Gauge Gauge is a Python package that maps stabilizer quantum error-correcting codes to statistical mechanical models, allowing analytical computation of code properties. It is offered as a complementary tool alongside Plaquette for the quantum computing research community.
Quantifiable outcome
- 180x speedup with GPU acceleration vs CPU-based simulation
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use QC Design
Customer profileNamed customers6 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
QC Design technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration2 records
AI capability2 records
Feature7 records
QC Design partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Five partnerships are on record, tiered major and core.
- C12majorC12, a Paris-based quantum computing company developing carbon nanotube spin-qubit architecture, adopted QC Design's Plaquette software to accelerate fault-tolerant quantum computing development. C12 uses isotopically purified carbon-12 nanotubes achieving coherence times two orders of magnitude larger than previously measured. Plaquette enables C12 to benchmark quantum error-correcting codes including QLDPC codes compatible with their high-connectivity architecture.
- QUDORAmajorQUDORA, a German quantum computing company pioneering scalable trapped-ion processors using proprietary NFQC (Near Field Quantum Control) technology, integrated Plaquette into their R&D workflow. The partnership enables QUDORA to simulate and optimize fault-tolerance designs for their microwave-driven ion-trap architecture that replaces laser systems with on-chip microwave electronics.
- ZuriQmajorZuriQ, a Swiss trapped-ion quantum computing company developing micro-fabricated Penning ion-trap processors, entered a pilot of QC Design's Plaquette software. The partnership enables ZuriQ to simulate fault-tolerance designs for their Penning-trap architecture featuring full 3D reconfigurability of single-ion sites, analyzing imperfections such as motional-mode heating, shuttling errors, and magnetic-field noise.
- Quantum SourcemajorQuantum Source, a company developing photonic quantum computing technology using deterministic entanglement protocols and proprietary photonic chip technology, entered a pilot engagement with QC Design's Plaquette. The partnership aims to boost Quantum Source's capabilities to simulate, analyze, and refine photonic fault-tolerance architectures for their large-scale quantum computing platform. Quantum Source secured $50M Series A funding ($77M total) around this time.
- NvidiacorePartnership with Nvidia for GPU acceleration of Plaquette simulations. The collaboration enabled development of a full-state GPU simulator optimized for fault-tolerant circuits, leveraging Nvidia's cuQuantum SDK. This partnership enables 400+ qubit simulations with up to 180x speedups.
Scale indicators5 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
QC Design competitors and assessment
Company assessmentEmerging players
- QuEra Computing: QuEra builds neutral-atom quantum hardware and offers developer tools (Bloqade) for its platform. It overlaps with QC Design as both a potential customer and a partial competitor in the neutral-atom tooling ecosystem.
- BlueQubit: BlueQubit offers a cloud-based quantum simulator and access layer for researchers and developers. It competes with Plaquette's simulation capabilities at smaller qubit counts, particularly for research customers who prefer a hosted service over on-premises.
- Xanadu: Xanadu develops photonic quantum hardware alongside software frameworks (PennyLane, Strawberry Fields). It overlaps with QC Design on the photonic/FBQC side and serves a similar developer audience, although Xanadu's stack is broader and tied to its own hardware roadmap.
Direct peers
- Classiq: Classiq provides a quantum software development platform that automates the design and synthesis of quantum circuits and algorithms. It targets similar enterprise and hardware customers with a higher-level design layer, making it the closest direct competitor to QC Design's Plaquette.
- Riverlane: Riverlane builds Deltaflow, a quantum error correction stack for hardware teams, and is one of the leading QEC software companies globally. It competes with QC Design in serving fault-tolerant hardware teams, although it leans more toward decoders/control and less toward simulation.
- Q-CTRL: Q-CTRL develops quantum control software and error suppression tooling used by enterprise and government quantum programs. It overlaps with QC Design in addressing quantum hardware teams' need to characterize, suppress and reason about errors, although with a control-level rather than simulator focus.
- Strangeworks: Strangeworks offers a quantum computing platform that aggregates access to multiple quantum hardware backends and software tools. It overlaps with QC Design as a developer-facing layer for quantum practitioners, although it competes more in the orchestration/portal layer than QEC simulation.
Others
- PsiQuantum: PsiQuantum is a leading photonic quantum computing company whose logo appears among QC Design's customers. It is not a direct software competitor today but represents both a flagship reference customer and a long-term risk of in-house tool development at scale.
Broad incumbents
- Quantinuum: Quantinuum combines trapped-ion hardware with a full software stack (TKET, InQuanto). It is a broad incumbent in fault-tolerant quantum computing and represents both a potential competitor for design-automation customers and a potential channel for QC Design's tools.
- IBM Quantum: IBM Quantum operates the most widely used open-source quantum framework (Qiskit) and a large quantum cloud platform. While its primary focus is superconducting hardware and broad developer tooling, its Qiskit ecosystem competes with QC Design for mindshare among quantum developers.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
QC Design social profiles
Digital presenceQC Design financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
QC Design leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles4 records
QC Design funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds2 records
Investors1 record
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
QC Design M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about QC Design
What does QC Design do?
QC Design develops Plaquette, a design-automation software platform for fault-tolerant quantum computing. The software enables quantum hardware teams to simulate, analyze, and optimize logical qubit designs under realistic hardware noise, modeling 20+ hardware imperfections across multiple platforms. It is targeted at quantum hardware companies and research institutions developing fault-tolerant quantum computers.
Is QC Design a public or private company?
QC Design is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was QC Design founded?
QC Design was founded in 2021. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is QC Design based?
QC Design is headquartered in Neu-ulm, Germany, in the Europe region.
How does QC Design make money?
One revenue line is on record: software Subscriptions.
Who are QC Design's main competitors?
Emerging players on record are QuEra Computing, BlueQubit and Xanadu. Direct peers are Classiq, Riverlane, Q-CTRL and Strangeworks. PsiQuantum is listed as an others. Broad incumbents are Quantinuum and IBM Quantum.
Does QC Design have an API?
No public API is recorded for QC Design.
What industry is QC Design in?
QC Design's product category is Quantum Computing Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAGACAD, Quantum Circuit Design, Visualization & Workflow Tools, with a secondary code of HDAGAIAB, QCaaS Platforms & Developer Portals. Its NAICS code is 54142 and its SIC code is 7373.