A consortium of venture investors is making a moonshot bet on Zapata Computing Inc., a startup developing software for quantum computers.

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Zapata today said that it has raised a $21 million funding round co-led by the startup investment division of Comcast Corp. and Prelude Ventures. Several other institutional backers took part as well, including manufacturing giant Robert Bosch GmbH.

Zapata was founded in 2017 by a group of researchers (pictured) who worked together at Harvard University on exploring practical applications for quantum computing. Current quantum systems can handle only basic processing tasks, but it’s believed that the technology may eventually surpass even the most powerful classical supercomputers in speed.

Quantum computers process information in a drastically different way than conventional hardware. Whereas a classical computer stores data using bits that hold either a 1 or a 0 at any given time, the quantum equivalent — the qubit — can contain both values at once. Thanks to qubits’ unique behavior, a large enough quantum computer could theoretically handle complex scientific calculations that are too difficult for today’s computers.

Zapata is developing software to help large enterprises harness this processing power in their operations. Since a commercial-grade quantum computer does not yet exist, the startup is currently focusing its attention on the experimental, fairly low-powered machines that have been built so far by companies such as IBM Corp. and Google LLC.

The company has publicly detailed only a few projects so far. One, dubbed CUSP, is a tool that can take relatively complex algorithms and compress them to fit on Google’s quantum computers. A more recent project saw Zapata develop a quantum version of a Boltzmann machine, a type of neural network. The startup also holds an exclusive license to a collection of earlier algorithms that its founders brought over from Harvard.

On its website, Zapata claims that it’s currently developing software for Fortune 1000 companies in industries such as as finance, pharmaceuticals, and material science. The startup said that it will use the new funding to expand operations by hiring more researchers in Canada and Europe. It has raised just over $26 million to date.

Photo: Zapata Computing