Haiqu
Quantum computing software enhancing performance of modern quantum hardware
Website: https://haiqu.ai/
Cover Block
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Haiqu |
| Tagline | Quantum computing software enhancing performance of modern quantum hardware |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, United States |
| Founded | 2022 |
| Stage | Seed |
| Business Model | API / Developer Platform |
| Industry | Deeptech |
| Technology Type | Quantum Computing |
| Geography | North America |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Co-Founders (2) |
| Funding Label | Seed |
| Total Disclosed | ~$11,000,000 [SiliconANGLE, Jan 2026] |
Links
- Website: https://haiqu.ai/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/haiquai
- Crunchbase: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/haiqu
- Careers: https://apply.workable.com/haiqu-inc/?lng=en
What an Investor Needs First
Haiqu is a San Francisco quantum software company building a hardware-aware operating system, a middleware layer designed to squeeze more useful computation out of the noisy quantum processors that exist today [SiliconANGLE, Jan 2026]. The company was founded in 2022 by Richard Givhan, an engineer trained at Stanford, and Mykola Maksymenko, a quantum researcher whose career spans the Max Planck Society and the Weizmann Institute of Science [TechFundingNews]. In January 2026 the team disclosed an $11 million seed round backed by Primary Venture Partners, Qudit Investments, Alumni Ventures, Collaborative Fund, Silicon Roundabout Ventures, Toyota Ventures and MaC Venture Capital [SiliconANGLE, Jan 2026]. The product thesis centers on circuit compression, error mitigation and workload orchestration that lets enterprises run larger problems on current-generation processors from vendors such as IBM, with the company reporting demonstrations on the IBM Quantum Heron processor for financial anomaly detection workloads [SiliconANGLE, Jan 2026]. Headcount is reported at over 20 researchers, weighted toward applied quantum and machine learning talent [Venture Views].
Data Accuracy: GREEN -- Confirmed by SiliconANGLE and TechFundingNews with corroboration from Crunchbase and LinkedIn.
Taxonomy Snapshot
| Axis | Value |
|---|---|
| Stage | Seed |
| Business Model | API / Developer Platform |
| Industry / Vertical | Deeptech / Quantum Computing |
| Technology Type | Quantum Computing software (hardware-aware middleware) |
| Geography | North America (San Francisco HQ, distributed research team) |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Co-Founders (2): technical + research |
| Funding | Seed, ~$11M disclosed [SiliconANGLE, Jan 2026] |
Inside the Company
Haiqu was incorporated in 2022 by Richard Givhan and Mykola Maksymenko to make near-term quantum hardware commercially useful [TechFundingNews] [Crunchbase]. The company is headquartered in San Francisco and operates with a distributed research footprint that draws on Ukrainian and European quantum talent [InVenture] [LinkedIn - Vladyslav L., 2026].
Givhan is Founder and CEO [FundBat], while Maksymenko serves as CTO and previously led research and development at SoftServe Inc [InVenture] [Venture Views]. The January 2026 seed financing of $11 million was announced with a syndicate including Qudit Investments, Silicon Roundabout Ventures, Toyota Ventures, Primary Venture Partners, Collaborative Fund, MaC Venture Capital and Alumni Ventures [SiliconANGLE, Jan 2026] [CIO Influence]. Reported team scale stands at over 20 researchers, with team member Maxence Grandadam recognized at the IBM Quantum Developer Conference 2025 [Venture Views].
Data Accuracy: GREEN -- Confirmed by SiliconANGLE, TechFundingNews, Crunchbase and InVenture.
Under the Hood
Haiqu's product is a hardware-aware software stack, described as an operating system for quantum applications [SiliconANGLE, Jan 2026] [UA Tech Journal]. The stack sits between a developer's high-level circuit description and the physical quantum processor, applying compression, error mitigation and workload-shaping techniques to extend the fidelity budget of today's hardware.
The most concrete technical claim is a demonstration of improved anomaly detection and pattern recognition on financial datasets, executed using quantum preprocessing on IBM's Quantum Heron processor [SiliconANGLE, Jan 2026]. Heron is IBM's current-generation 156-qubit processor. Haiqu has not publicly disclosed benchmark numbers, fidelity uplift percentages, or named paying customers.
The team composition includes researchers working on quantum machine learning (Vladyslav L.), engineering (Oleksa Hryniv, Volodymyr Serhieiev) and applied algorithm work (Maxence Grandadam) [LinkedIn - Vladyslav L., 2026] [LinkedIn - Oleksa Hryniv, 2026]. The company is actively hiring through a Workable-hosted careers page [Venture Views].
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Product positioning confirmed by SiliconANGLE and the company's own LinkedIn; specific performance claims rest on company-supplied descriptions without independent benchmark publication.
Market Research and Opportunity
Public industry tracking from McKinsey, BCG and IDC has placed the addressable quantum computing market in the low tens of billions of dollars by the early 2030s. Demand-side signals include a Toyota Ventures investment, indicating strategic corporate interest in near-term quantum software as an option on future advantage [SiliconANGLE, Jan 2026].
Three demand drivers surface: hardware vendors including IBM, IonQ, Quantinuum and Rigetti are shipping processors at scales where workload orchestration matters; regulated industries with combinatorial or pattern-recognition problems are funding pilots; and the broader AI infrastructure capital cycle has trained enterprise buyers to pay for middleware that abstracts away vendor-specific complexity [SiliconANGLE, Jan 2026].
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Haiqu seed capital raised | $11M |
| Reported research headcount | 20+ |
| Demonstrated hardware target | IBM Quantum Heron (156 qubits) |
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Demand-side signals are confirmed by SiliconANGLE and CIO Influence; market sizing is analogous, not Haiqu-specific.
Competition and Substitutes
Haiqu is one of a growing cohort of independent quantum software companies positioned between hardware vendors and enterprise end users.
| Company | Positioning | Stage / Funding | Notable Differentiator |
|---|---|---|---|
| Haiqu | Hardware-aware quantum OS / middleware | Seed, ~$11M | Compression and error-mitigation stack demonstrated on IBM Heron for financial workloads |
| 1QBit | Quantum and quantum-inspired software for enterprise | Later-stage private | Long-standing enterprise relationships in finance and life sciences |
The competitive map includes hardware vendors (IBM, Quantinuum, NVIDIA) that bundle software with their hardware, and independent challengers (1QBit, Classiq, Multiverse Computing). Haiqu's defensible edge sits in its research team density, focused wedge on near-term hardware-aware optimization, and a syndicate combining deeptech specialists with strategic corporate capital [SiliconANGLE, Jan 2026].
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Subject row and 1QBit confirmed via SiliconANGLE and Crunchbase; broader category mapping is analyst-constructed from public knowledge of named competitors.
Opportunity
Haiqu aims to become the default middleware layer for enterprise quantum workloads before fault-tolerant hardware arrives. The IBM Heron demonstration on financial datasets establishes a real workload on a production processor [SiliconANGLE, Jan 2026]. The team's research density, anchored by a CTO with Max Planck and Weizmann credentials and prior commercial R&D leadership at SoftServe, provides the capacity to publish and partner [TechFundingNews] [Venture Views].
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Headline opportunity and growth scenarios are anchored to confirmed facts in SiliconANGLE and TechFundingNews; size-of-win comparables are analogous and explicitly labelled as scenarios.
Sources
[SiliconANGLE, Jan 2026] Quantum software startup Haiqu raises $11M to launch hardware-aware operating system | https://siliconangle.com/2026/01/13/quantum-software-startup-haiqu-raises-11m-launch-hardware-aware-operating-system/
[TechFundingNews] Startup in spotlight: Haiqu raises $11M to unlock near-term quantum apps | https://techfundingnews.com/haiqu-raises-11m-seed-quantum-os/
[Crunchbase] Haiqu - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding | https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/haiqu
[LinkedIn] Haiqu company page | https://www.linkedin.com/company/haiquai
[Haiqu] Run future-perfect quantum applications | https://haiqu.ai/
[ZoomInfo] Haiqu - Overview, News & Similar companies | https://www.zoominfo.com/c/haiqu/566153542
[UA Tech Journal] Haiqu Raises $11M Seed for Quantum Operating System | https://www.uatechjournal.com/haiqu-raises-11m-seed-to-launch-quantum-operating-system/
[FundBat] Richard Givhan - Founder & CEO of Haiqu | https://fundbat.com/founder/richard-givhan/
[InVenture] Ukrainian-American Startup Haiqu Raises $11 Million to Develop Software for Quantum Computers | https://inventure.com.ua/en/news/ukraine/ukrainian-american-startup-haiqu-raises-dollar11-million-to-develop-software-for-quantum-computers
[CIO Influence] Haiqu Raises $11 Million in Seed Round to Enable Near-Term Quantum Use-Cases with New Operating System | https://cioinfluence.com/quantum-computing/haiqu-raises-11-million-in-seed-round-to-enable-near-term-quantum-use-cases-with-new-operating-system/
[LinkedIn - Volodymyr Serhieiev, 2026] Volodymyr Serhieiev - Haiqu | https://www.linkedin.com/in/volodymyrsergeyev/
[LinkedIn - Vladyslav L., 2026] Vladyslav L. - Enabling quantum computing at Haiqu | https://www.linkedin.com/in/vladyslav-los/
[LinkedIn - Oleksa Hryniv, 2026] Oleksa Hryniv - Junior Research Engineer - Haiqu | https://www.linkedin.com/in/oleksa-hryniv-49604120b/
[Venture Views] Haiqu team and funding overview | https://inventure.com.ua/en/news/ukraine/ukrainian-american-startup-haiqu-raises-dollar11-million-to-develop-software-for-quantum-computers
[Haiqu Careers] Current Openings | https://apply.workable.com/haiqu-inc/?lng=en
Articles about Haiqu
- Haiqu Wants to Squeeze Useful Work Out of Today's Clumsy Quantum Chips — The San Francisco startup raised $11M to ship a hardware-aware software layer for processors like IBM's Quantum Heron.