A technology once feared too error-prone to underlie a quantum computer is hitting the big time.

QuEra, an academic spin-out company that uses atoms and lasers to encode quantum bits or ‘qubits’, announced on 11 February that it has raised US$230 million in funding — one of the largest single investments in any quantum firm so far. Other companies using a similar technology to build machines — called neutral atom quantum computers — are also making gains on industry leaders such as IBM.