ORCA Computing — vendor dossier

ORCA Computing

Quantum computersQuantum memory
O

UK photonic quantum-computing company spun out of the University of Oxford in 2019. Distinguishing technology is a room-temperature photonic quantum memory based on Raman storage in warm atomic vapour, originally developed in the Walmsley group at Oxford. The memory provides controllable, low-loss interactions between travelling photons and atomic ensembles, enabling synchronisation and "repeat-until-success" operations in a photonic processor. Ships rack-mounted photonic appliances (PT-1, PT-2) targeting quantum machine learning and sampling workloads, integrated with classical GPU clusters.

HQ
London, UK
Founded
2019
Status
private
Last verified
Wed May 20 2026 08:00:00 GMT+0800 (Singapore Standard Time)

Timeline

20192020202120222023202420252026202720282029today
2019
Founded as Oxford spin-out by Richard Murray (CEO), Cristina Escoda, Ian Walmsley, and Josh Nunn
2022-20
Nine PT-1 photonic systems deployed to UK Ministry of Defence, the UK NQCC, Poznan Supercomputing Center, and other academic / government sites — first commercial deployments of an ORCA photonic appliance
2024
Collaboration with Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center (PCSS) on a quantum-AI data-centre integration blueprint built on NVIDIA infrastructure
2025
ORCA delivers PT-2 photonic system to the UK National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) Photonic Testbed; demonstrates application to Vodafone fibre-network route optimisation
2025-11
USD 37M Series B closed with Temasek, Baillie Gifford, NVIDIA's NVentures, the Qatar Investment Authority, and Morgan Stanley
2025-12
Demonstrates use of PT-series photonic processor as a quantum random-number / entropy source for post-quantum cybersecurity workflows
2026
PT-3 commercial photonic system, reported to match ~180 GPUs of throughput on certain quantum machine-learning workloads
shipped milestone public roadmap

Current flagship

ORCA PT-2 — photonic processor with integrated quantum memory; rack-mounted

Milestones

  1. 2022-20
    Nine PT-1 photonic systems deployed to UK Ministry of Defence, the UK NQCC, Poznan Supercomputing Center, and other academic / government sites — first commercial deployments of an ORCA photonic appliance
    Quantum computers web source ↗
  2. 2025-12
    Demonstrates use of PT-series photonic processor as a quantum random-number / entropy source for post-quantum cybersecurity workflows
    Quantum computers press source ↗
  3. 2025-11
    USD 37M Series B closed with Temasek, Baillie Gifford, NVIDIA's NVentures, the Qatar Investment Authority, and Morgan Stanley
    Quantum computers press source ↗
  4. 2025
    ORCA delivers PT-2 photonic system to the UK National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) Photonic Testbed; demonstrates application to Vodafone fibre-network route optimisation
    Quantum computers web source ↗
  5. 2024
    Collaboration with Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center (PCSS) on a quantum-AI data-centre integration blueprint built on NVIDIA infrastructure
    Quantum computers web source ↗
  6. 2019
    Founded as Oxford spin-out by Richard Murray (CEO), Cristina Escoda, Ian Walmsley, and Josh Nunn
    Quantum computers press source ↗

Roadmap

  • 2026 PT-3 commercial photonic system, reported to match ~180 GPUs of throughput on certain quantum machine-learning workloads source ↗

Capability details

Quantum computing

Qubit type
photonic
Physical qubits
—
Logical qubits
0
1Q gate fidelity
—
2Q gate fidelity
—
T₁
—
T₂
—
EC code
—
Connectivity
—

Quantum memory

Platform
warm-atomic-vapour (Raman / GEM)
Storage time
—
Retrieval efficiency
—
Fidelity
—
Wavelength
—
Mode capacity
—
14 unverified fields
  • modalities.qc.physical_qubits_current
  • modalities.qc.one_q_fidelity
  • modalities.qc.two_q_fidelity
  • modalities.qc.connectivity
  • modalities.memory.storage_time_ms
  • modalities.memory.retrieval_efficiency
  • modalities.memory.fidelity
  • modalities.memory.wavelength_nm
  • modalities.memory.mode_capacity
  • positioning — The user's brief referenced "boson-sampling / squeezed light" — ORCA's public materials emphasise a memory-based photonic architecture and single-photon/coherent-light operation rather than squeezed-light Gaussian boson sampling per se. Architectural detail beyond the Raman/GEM memory not verified against a peer-reviewed source in this run.
  • shareholders
  • headcount
  • revenue
  • milestones[NSCC Singapore] — Brief mentioned NSCC Singapore deployment; not found in search results. Omitted rather than fabricated.

People

  • Richard Murray — CEO & Co-founder (since 2019) ↗
  • Joshua Nunn — Co-founder & CSO (since 2019) ↗
  • Ian Walmsley — Co-founder & Chairman (since 2019) ↗
  • Cristina Escoda — Co-founder (since 2019) ↗

References