Tech investment fund EdenBase says the analytics tool is likely to save the team time and lead to better investments when the fund launches.
LONDON — When it comes to emerging technology, few signals are stronger than launching a $100 million investment fund.
That’s the plan EdenBase — a tech fund based at Northeastern University’s London startup hub — has for its new fund, focused on early- and growth-stage startups that are utilizing quantum computing.
EdenBase was founded with the intention of investing in frontier technologies like artificial intelligence. Now, betting quantum computing is nearing a breakthrough — much like AI did after the 2020 launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT — it wants to act early by identifying investable startups.
As more logical, error-corrected “qubits” become accessible, EdenBase believes the long-anticipated “quantum advantage” is near, with the potential to revolutionize medicine, physics, environmental science, cryptology and many other fields.
“Quantum computing has the power to provide answers to what are currently unsolvable problems,” says Eric van der Kleij, EdenBase co-founder and partner.
To help identify the most promising companies and regions, EdenBase enlisted eight students undertaking a postgraduate degree in business administration (MBA) on Northeastern’s Boston campus. Van der Kleij described the collaboration as putting students “at the coalface of the future.”
The firm wanted a “validation of our thesis”, van der Kleij explains, that quantum startups are ready for investment. It also wanted the students to provide insights into emerging quantum clusters and confirm that there was enough deal flow potential to justify a dedicated fund.
The students traveled to London in March for briefings, then returned to the U.S. to compile a research report and presentation.
Van der Kleij says the result was a valuable analytics tool that the fund — officially, EdenBase Quantum Fund One — will be used to identify global sources of investments when it goes live later this year. The outcome of the project “went far beyond the remit” the students were initially given, he adds.
“They collated their data and created an analytics tool which you can use to look at quantum deal flow by region, which I thought was pretty cool,” he says. “It will definitely be one of the data points that we feed into the fund team as they evaluate sources of deal flow.”
The former Downing Street tech adviser believes the tool will “save us time and hopefully result in even better investments.”
Meredith Schwarzkopf, one of the MBA consultants, called the experience “really rewarding.”
“It felt very much like we accomplished something, which was really exciting for us and the team,” she says. “And, personally, I am really excited in the coming months to hear if there are any companies that Eric and the EdenBase team decide to invest in following our research.”
Now interning at IBM, Schwarzkopf, 26, says EdenBase provided baseline criteria, but the students expanded on it.
“We talked [with EdenBase] in our meeting about creating this great index where you could filter by region and size and different things like that,” says Schwarzkopf, who is from Boston.
“But then we also included the human aspects and different qualitative attributes that we established would be important, one of which was like looking at the leadership team. We wanted to know what the background of the leaders were because we found that to be really important in the success of other quantum company startups.”
Van der Kleij was “delighted” that the students took the initiative to include leadership evaluations.
Michael Gleaslen, another student in the group, valued the experience of working in a new tech space and a different business culture.
“I loved the opportunity that Northeastern provided,” says the 29-year-old from Andover, Massachusetts. “It is a foreign country, but one very similar to the United States. … Not having a language barrier made the process much easier, but it was still enough of a different culture … just by being there I learned how they operate over there and how they work — far more than when you just visit a place and get a tourist’s perspective.”
The work was part of the Global Field Study course led by professor Ravi Sarathy, who says the students gained firsthand experience applying classroom skills to real-world problems.
“They learned about quantum computing,” he says. “They learned how to work together as a team, how to work with a client … how to use library information, industry information, quantitative data of all sorts … and reduce it in a digestible format so that it can actually answer the client’s questions.”
EdenBase has announced the fund’s home will be QBase, a new area within the Northeastern startup hub on Crosswall, which will help businesses to learn about quantum and provide opportunities for students. It will host researchers, entrepreneurs, investors and officials, and some portfolio companies will also locate there.
Tobias Hartung, a Northeastern associate professor of computer science and quantum researcher, will serve as a volunteer adviser to the fund.
“What EdenBase is looking for,” says Hartung, “is people who have direct experience with what’s happening and are involved in the field to advise them on what makes sense.
“Because, let’s face it, if you’re not involved in the field and you’re looking into investment opportunities, how are you going to know what makes sense and what is science fiction?
“They are thinking about, ‘Does this make sense? Is this something viable?’… What is viable, say, in an academic environment, might not necessarily be viable for a startup.”
Van der Kleij says EdenBase hopes to tap Hartung’s expertise to help validate investments, given his work with quantum computing systems and algorithm design.
He also hopes the partnership will deepen Northeastern’s engagement in the quantum sector.
“What could be beneficial to him and the students that he engages with,” van der Kleij adds, “is to come and join some of the sessions where we are looking at the opportunities that we have been presented with for investment.
“We hope he can benefit from the view of industry and the view of businesses as to the viability of quantum-enabled solutions.”