Nord Quantique: the Sherbrooke company betting on error correction built into the hardware
Valued at 1.4 billion dollars since May 2026, the Canadian start-up backed by BDC targets fault-tolerant machines by 2030 with far fewer physical qubits.
Nord Quantique, founded in 2020 out of the Université de Sherbrooke's quantum institute, builds quantum computers whose error correction is encoded directly in the hardware, using bosonic codes. Backed by Canada's development bank BDC since its 9.5 million dollar seed round in 2022, it raised 30 million dollars in May 2026 at a valuation of 1.4 billion dollars.
Why it matters
The cost of quantum computing is mostly the overhead of error correction: thousands of physical qubits per logical one. A company funded on the promise of a one-to-one ratio, and selected by DARPA to prove it, is worth watching even from Europe.
Key takeaways
- Founded in 2020 in Sherbrooke, Quebec, by Julien Camirand Lemyre (chief executive) and Philippe St-Jean, from the Université de Sherbrooke's quantum institute; grown from six employees in 2021 to more than eighty.
- Technology: bosonic codes and multimode logical qubits, aiming at a one-to-one ratio of logical to physical qubits; the company says it demonstrated error correction at hardware level in 2023, and targets fault-tolerant computing by 2030.
- Funding: a 9.5 million dollar seed round co-led by BDC in January 2022; on 18 May 2026, a 30 million dollar growth round at a 1.4 billion dollar valuation, with funds managed by Fidelity Investments Canada, BDC, Panache Ventures, Presidio Ventures, Quantacet, Quantonation and Real Ventures.
- Public backing too: 16 million US dollars from Canada's Quantum Champions Program, and selection in DARPA's Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, through to stage B (11 companies), with 5 million dollars awarded.
In an article by BDC, Canada's development bank, Nord Quantique is presented as the company it helped grow into a global contender. Founded in 2020 by Julien Camirand Lemyre and Philippe St-Jean out of the Université de Sherbrooke's quantum institute, it went from six employees at its first funding in 2021 to more than eighty, while keeping its headquarters in Sherbrooke. BDC co-led its 9.5 million dollar seed round in January 2022 and describes its role as that of an active partner on the board.
The technical bet is error correction built into the hardware. Rather than surrounding each logical qubit with thousands of physical ones, Nord Quantique encodes information in bosonic codes and multimode logical qubits, with the goal of a one-to-one ratio between logical and physical qubits. The company says it demonstrated error correction at hardware level in 2023, and its roadmap targets fault-tolerant quantum computing by 2030.
Investors have followed. On 18 May 2026, Nord Quantique announced a 30 million dollar growth round valuing it at 1.4 billion US dollars, with funds managed by Fidelity Investments Canada alongside BDC, Panache Ventures, Presidio Ventures, Quantacet, Quantonation and Real Ventures. Public money adds to it: 16 million US dollars from Canada's Quantum Champions Program, and a place in DARPA's Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, where the company moved from stage A (20 firms) to stage B (11 firms, three of them Canadian), with 5 million dollars awarded and more available at later stages.
The article was shared on LinkedIn by Josée Quevillon.
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