UK quantum firm OQC raised £260m. Most recent British tech stars were sold abroad.
Oxford Quantum Circuits has closed a £260m funding round, the largest ever private raise by a quantum computing company in Europe.
What happened
OQC announces a £260m Series C, the largest fundraise ever completed by a European quantum computing company.
Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC) raised £260m ($350m) on . The company says it is the largest private fundraise by any quantum computing firm in Europe, and more investors wanted in than there was room for. Bullhound Capital led the round. The British Business Bank put in £100m, and Oxford Science Enterprises and Chevron also took part.
OQC was set up in 2017 as a company spun out of the University of Oxford. It builds superconducting quantum computers and already runs machines in the UK, the US, Japan and Spain.
With £100m of state money now in the company, OQC is an open test of whether Britain can keep an important technology company at home.
Sources: OQC
The Pattern
We looked at recent British deep-tech companies, firms built on new science, that grew very large. Britain is very good at starting such companies and has often failed to keep them. Of the four we found, three ended up with foreign owners or a listing abroad. The fourth, Wayve, has stayed independent in London, on money from a Japanese-led round.
Show the other 2 cases
The Read
The market asks whether another UK startup announces a round of £200m or more by . The mood in mid-2026 points to yes. UK startups raised over £1bn in June, the state is putting in money at the £100m level, and AI and deep tech lead the deals. The line of late-stage UK AI and science companies is deeper than at any point this decade, and very large rounds tend to come in clusters.
There are reasons for doubt. One month can mislead. was a record because rounds this size are rare, and July and August are usually quiet months for European venture deals as firms pause for summer.
On the bigger question, history runs against the mood. Raising money has never been Britain’s problem, and the companies that went abroad had raised plenty first. A £260m round gives OQC more time to run. It does not change the pull of US capital markets and buyers.
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