By Dorin Baniel, Principal & Head of EMEA Investments
At NightDragon, we back category-defining SecureTech companies building the future of cybersecurity, critical infrastructure, and national resilience. We look for technology that doesn’t just chase trends but drives transformational change. That’s why we’re excited to share our investment in Classiq, the pioneering quantum software platform that’s shaping the world’s next generation of computing.
The Quantum Moment Is Now
Quantum computing promises to revolutionize industries ranging from pharmaceuticals and finance to aerospace, logistics, and energy. The opportunity is enormous, with estimated economic value of up to $1–2 trillion by 2040.
Today, quantum computing is rapidly approaching a pivotal inflection point in this growth. With practical quantum advantage expected by 2026 and commercial-scale machines forecasted by 2028–2029, the need for intuitive, scalable quantum software has never been greater. Yet today’s fragmented and hardware-specific tools pose steep barriers to entry.
Classiq bridges that gap. As the first and leading hardware-agnostic, end-to-end quantum software platform, Classiq enables developers to build advanced quantum applications without needing to be experts in quantum physics or write code at the gate level. This breakthrough is comparable to the emergence of modern operating systems in classical computing.
Why Software Will Define the Quantum Race
Today, quantum computing suffers from a critical bottleneck: usability. Programming a quantum computer typically requires deep knowledge of quantum physics, low-level gate operations, and hardware-specific configurations. It’s like asking every developer to write in raw assembly code—time-consuming, fragile, and unscalable.
Classiq flips that paradigm. Their platform enables developers—even those without quantum expertise—to design and run sophisticated quantum algorithms. They’ve created the first,and currently the only, high-level language for quantum coding – they call it Qmod, quantum modeling language. Their quantum IDE, compiler, and hardware-agnostic execution environment work seamlessly across all major cloud and HPC providers.
In essence, Classiq is building what Windows and Linux did for classical computing: the foundational layer that makes quantum accessible, scalable, and usable by the masses.
Hardware-Agnostic by Design
In a space where dozens of players are pursuing different hardware approaches—superconducting qubits, trapped ions, photonics—Classiq enables developers to build once and run across them all given their hardware-agnostic architecture, providing enterprises and developers the flexibility of not being locked into a single ecosystem.
This flexibility is crucial. No single hardware winner has emerged yet, and enterprise customers are demanding interoperability. Classiq’s abstraction layer allows organizations to experiment, benchmark, and deploy across IBM, Microsoft, Google, IonQ, AWS, and more—without vendor lock-in.
It also future-proofs organizations against rapid hardware changes. As more capable machines emerge, Classiq’s compiler can automatically optimize quantum circuits to leverage new capabilities – making it a dynamic companion to the ever-evolving quantum ecosystem.
A Market Backed by Global Governments and Hyperscalers
Quantum computing isn’t just a race among tech companies, it’s a national priority with profound implications for economic competitiveness and national security. Over the past five years, governments have poured more than $42 billion into quantum R&D, infrastructure, and talent development. China leads the pack with $15 billion in funding, followed by Germany, the UK, the U.S., and others. The U.S. recently expanded its National Quantum Initiative Act, allocating billions more in federal support. As such, dominance in quantum is increasingly seen as essential for safeguarding defense systems, securing critical infrastructure, and maintaining geopolitical leverage in an era of rapidly evolving technological threats.
This public-sector investment is matched by hyperscalers like Microsoft, Google, IBM, Amazon, and Nvidia, who are racing to build quantum clouds, developer platforms, and hybrid computing architectures.
Classiq sits at the nexus of both these movements. It’s already partnered with Microsoft Azure, AWS Braket, and Google Quantum, enabling seamless access to quantum hardware through its platform. It is also embedded in government quantum education and national readiness programs around the world—including in Israel, Canada, and the UK—helping shape policy, talent pipelines, and national security strategy.
A World-Class Team with Unmatched Talent Density
The company was founded by three exceptional technologists. Nir Minerbi and Amir Naveh are both graduates of Israel’s elite Talpiot program—one of the most prestigious and selective military R&D units in the world. Yehudah Naveh, meanwhile, not only has a Ph.D in Physics and Math, but was also one of the founders of IBM ‘s quantum computing team developing IBM Qiskit and its software ecosystem.
Today, the company has 63 employees, including 11 Talpiot graduates, dozens of Ph.D’s and experts across quantum physics, computer science, and enterprise software. This team has already delivered over 60 patents in quantum software innovation, including breakthroughs in compilation, circuit modeling, and hybrid quantum-classical execution. They’ve also built the world’s largest community of quantum developers, spanning over 500 global universities and thousands of active, registered users.
The Cybersecurity Time Bomb
Quantum computing poses one of the greatest existential challenges to cybersecurity. Today’s encryption standards—RSA, ECC, Diffie-Hellman—are designed around problems that classical computers would take millions or even billions of years to solve. For example, factoring a 2048-bit RSA key would take a classical supercomputer longer than the age of the universe. But with a sufficiently advanced quantum computer using Shor’s algorithm, this could be done in mere hours or minutes.
This radical jump in computational power has ushered in a threat model known as “harvest now, decrypt later”. Nation-states and adversaries are already capturing encrypted communications with the expectation that they’ll be able to break them once quantum computers reach maturity. That includes sensitive government data, financial records, intellectual property, and strategic communications being transmitted today—all of which could be decrypted in the near future unless action is taken.
Classiq’s platform enables enterprises and governments to simulate, prototype, and deploy post-quantum cryptographic (PQC) algorithms—ensuring that security infrastructures are ready before the threat materializes. Customers can stress-test their systems, validate new encryption standards, and build quantum-resistant applications using Classiq, migrating and translating existing applications built on classical compute to quantum programming.
Classiq isn’t just preparing the world for a quantum leap—it’s helping to secure it.
Building the Quantum App Store
Another reason we’re excited about Classiq is its vision for democratization. Beyond the core platform, they’re developing the world’s first Quantum App Store (Q-Store)—a marketplace of pre-built algorithms and applications that organizations can license and deploy directly. This opens quantum computing to a much broader audience and positions Classiq as the nucleus of the emerging quantum developer ecosystem.
Just as Amazon democratized the cloud, and iOS democratized mobile apps, Classiq is setting the stage to democratize quantum development.
Aligning With Our Broader Mission
At NightDragon, we invest in companies that enhance national security, data integrity, infrastructure resilience, and frontier technology leadership. Quantum computing touches all of these. From post-quantum cybersecurity to secure communications, to defense and aerospace to healthcare and finance, Classiq is a foundational enabler. It’s not just building software—it’s building sovereignty, security, and competitive advantage in a world about to be transformed by quantum power.
Final Thoughts
Quantum computing is no longer a question of if—it’s a question of when. The next generation of computing is being built now – and Classiq is the foundation. With quantum-resistant encryption becoming a top priority for CISOs globally, Classiq’s capabilities position it as a key enabler of quantum cybersecurity readiness across both the public and private sectors. Classiq as the de facto operating system makes quantum usable, scalable, and accessible, powering innovation across defense, cybersecurity, pharma, logistics, finance, and beyond, to get help the world unlock the $1-2T of expected value. That’s why we believe Classiq is a strategic imperative – and we are proud to support their journey.
Welcome to the family, Classiq!
Read the full press release here.
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