Insider Brief
- Novo Holdings is expanding beyond its biotechnology roots with a €188 million initiative to develop quantum technologies that advance human and planetary health, positioning itself as a cornerstone investor in Europe’s emerging quantum economy.
- The company’s Quantum Investments strategy connects quantum computing with AI, life sciences and sustainability, supported by large-scale Nordic infrastructure projects such as the Quantum Computing Programme and QuNorth, which aim to establish Level 2 and Level 3 quantum systems.
- Early portfolio investments — including Sparrow Quantum, Phasecraft, Quantonation II and 55 North — reflect Novo Holdings’ plan to build a global quantum ecosystem by 2030, emphasizing convergence, scalability and measurable quantum advantage within the decade.
Novo Holdings is positioning itself as a cornerstone investor in Europe’s emerging quantum economy, expanding beyond its roots in biotechnology with a €188 million commitment to develop quantum technologies aimed at advancing both human and planetary health, according to the organization’s recent report.
As envisioned in Novo Holding’s Quantum Investments Annual Review 2025, the company foresees a future where quantum and biotech — and several other areas of interest — will be interconnected. Far from a speculative science project, the company’s strategy views quantum as an enabling platform poised to fuse with artificial intelligence, life-science research and sustainability applications within the next decade.
Novo Holdings’ decision to create a dedicated Quantum Investments team in 2024 marks one of the largest private European bets on quantum technology. Backed by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the fund’s mandate is to build a connected Nordic and global ecosystem focused on quantum tools and technology relevant to healthcare and environmental modeling.
The firm’s leadership frames the move as a natural extension of its life-science mission.
“With Denmark as the centre of gravity, our ambition is to invest in, support and advance some of the world’s most promising quantum technologies,” Partner Jeroen Bakker writes in the report. “We focus on areas that can impact human and planetary health directly such as quantum algorithms and quantum sensing.”
The shift offers an opportunity for strategic diversification. Known primarily as the holding company and controlling shareholder of Novo Nordisk, with €142 billion in total assets under management as of year-end 2024, and as one of the world’s biggest life-science investors, Novo Holdings is now extending its reach into deep-tech industries built on advanced computing and materials science.
Building the Foundations of a Nordic Quantum Economy
The report outlines a coordinated public–private plan to make the Nordics a hub for critical quantum infrastructure, centered on developing Level 2 and Level 3 quantum computing systems.
Quantum systems are typically classified by readiness levels. Level 1 machines correspond to today’s so-called NISQ devices — powerful but noisy processors suited mainly for research. Level 2 computers incorporate active error mitigation and logical qubits, making them stable enough for small-scale commercial and scientific use. Level 3 systems add full fault tolerance, meaning errors are automatically corrected faster than they occur, enabling sustained calculations useful in chemistry, materials science and drug design.
The Novo Nordisk Foundation has committed €267 million to the Quantum Computing Programme (NQCP), which aims to develop a fault-tolerant Level 3 quantum computer for life-science applications.
A second project, QuNorth — jointly funded by the Foundation and Denmark’s Export and Investment Fund (EIFO) — will install a commercially accessible Level 2 system in 2026. Built by Atom Computing and Microsoft, the machine, codenamed Magne, will provide Nordic researchers access to tens of logical qubits, placing it among Europe’s most advanced systems.
The program’s intent is regional self-reliance byt ensuring that Nordic countries can experiment with error-corrected quantum systems without depending on U.S. or Chinese cloud platforms. Copenhagen’s Quantum Foundry Copenhagen (QFC), created under the NQCP umbrella, will supply the materials and chips that feed this pipeline, effectively giving the region its own fabrication capability for superconducting and neutral-atom devices.
Lene Oddershede, the Foundation’s Chief Scientific Officer for Planetary Sciences & Technology, writes in the report: “Quantum technology is moving rapidly from research to real-world application, and it is essential that the Nordic region maintains and further strengthens its stronghold within this critical technology. This requires major and strategic investments in the development of flagship technology and the creation of a strong ecosystem that supports both academic excellence and industrial innovation.”
Convergence: Quantum Meets AI and Life Science
Novo Holdings’ thesis rests on the assertion that the most immediate and meaningful impact of quantum computing will occur at the intersection with AI-driven biomedical research. The report highlights quantum’s potential to accelerate molecular simulation, drug discovery and biomarker analysis — areas where classical computation and machine learning are already reaching physical and algorithmic limits.
Quantum processors could soon model complex molecular interactions or protein folding pathways far beyond the reach of today’s supercomputers, according to the team, while quantum-enhanced machine learning could improve pattern recognition in clinical data and materials design. Bakker projects that tangible quantum advantage for defined applications will be achieved before 2030.
The same logic extends to planetary health. Quantum sensors capable of high-precision magnetic and gravitational measurements could improve environmental monitoring, while quantum optimization algorithms may support cleaner manufacturing and logistics.
Portfolio: From Photons to Algorithms
In its first year of operations, the Quantum Investments team executed a series of high-profile transactions that map across the quantum stack.
- Sparrow Quantum (Denmark): €21.5 million Series A round to scale deterministic single-photon sources for photonic quantum computers, secure communication and precision sensors.
- Phasecraft (United Kingdom): US$34 million Series B co-led by Novo Holdings to develop ultra-efficient quantum algorithms for materials, energy and pharmaceutical problems.
- Quantonation II (France): strategic fund commitment to one of the world’s first quantum-exclusive venture funds.
- Playground Global IV (United States): participation in a deep-tech fund with prior investments in PsiQuantum.
- 55 North (Denmark): cornerstone backing for a €134 million Nordic-anchored quantum venture fund investing globally across stages.
This mix of direct and fund positions mirrors the company’s long-term approach in life sciences to combine patient capital with ecosystem building. The report outlines plans to expand to eight to ten direct holdings and several fund stakes by 2030.
Interviews: Inside the Portfolio
The report includes interviews with founders whose companies illustrate the next phase of quantum commercialization.
Peter Lodahl, Chief Quantum Officer of Sparrow Quantum, describes his company’s twenty-year path from fundamental research at the Niels Bohr Institute to a scalable photonic platform:
‘We have built a unique deterministic photonic chip which generates the world’s most advanced single-photon and entangled-photon states. This chip technology can power photonic quantum computing, internet, communication and sensing. We focus on building these high-performance components and partner with major companies who integrate the full quantum stack.”
Ashley Montanaro, CEO of Phasecraft, frames the near-term challenge as software:
“The greatest challenge for anyone is that building a quantum computer is difficult! Quantum computing is still at an early stage – like the 1940s or 1950s equivalent of standard computing. Trying to get quantum hardware to do something useful is a massive challenge and so we need to make algorithms as efficient as possible. But not many people can do this kind of work; there are maybe only 100 people in the world that can develop new quantum algorithms. We have some amazing people on our team, but we need more people in the community that can do quantum algorithm design.”
Owen Lozman, Managing Partner at 55 North, argues that quantum is maturing from curiosity-driven research into applied industry:
“Enabling infrastructure is becoming more relevant to address the bottlenecks in quantum. Scaling the technology is both a challenge and an opportunity, which could lead to a focus on one or two companies that can really deliver some of those solutions. And that is quite exciting for us.”
Beyond the NISQ Era
Novo Holdings situates its quantum strategy within what it calls the transition from the Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) phase to a “megaquop era.” The term describes systems capable of error correction, double-digit logical qubits and error rates 100–1,000 times lower than those of early-2020s machines.
This shift coincides with an investment boom: PsiQuantum’s US$1 billion Series E, Quantinuum’s US$600 million raise at a US$10 billion valuation, IQM’s €275 million Series B (in which 55 North participated), and Classiq’s US$110 million Series C for quantum software automation. Together they signal that quantum is moving from “laboratory curiosity to industrial infrastructure,” as the report puts it.
While optimism runs high, Novo Holdings cautions that technical and financial hurdles remain. Qubit stability, noise suppression and error correction continue to limit scalability and many start-ups still face fragile valuations. Yet the trend line points toward consolidation around durable hardware and practical algorithms — the space where Novo Holdings is now planting its flag.
Denmark’s Century-Long Continuum
The report closes by linking today’s investments to Denmark’s historical role in quantum physics. A century after Niels Bohr’s early work in Copenhagen defined the field’s foundations, Denmark is again becoming a center for quantum innovation — this time through coordinated research, infrastructure and venture capital.
Institutions such as the Niels Bohr Institute, Technical University of Denmark and the Danish Quantum Community are now tied to industrial players, financiers and government agencies through shared facilities like Quantum Denmark and the Niels Bohr Building. The region’s collective effort — spanning Finland’s hardware firms, Sweden’s photonics expertise and Norway’s sensing specialization — suggests a model for cross-border deep-tech development.
Looking Ahead: Toward Measurable Quantum Advantage
Novo Holdings projects that by the end of this decade, quantum computing will demonstrate measurable benefits in drug discovery, materials engineering and energy modeling. Its convergence thesis — linking quantum computation with AI and life-science workflows — positions the firm as a bridge between two of the most transformative technologies of the century.
Whether those expectations materialize depends on the sector’s ability to deliver error-corrected machines, efficient algorithms and sustainable business models. But with Novo Holdings’ capital and the Novo Nordisk Foundation’s infrastructure investments now aligned, the Nordics appear to be crafting a long-term industrial strategy where quantum technology moves from the laboratory to the marketplace — and from theory to tangible impact on human and planetary health.