The quantum race has a communications problem

I’ve been in a lot of rooms lately with people who can explain their quantum technology with extraordinary precision, but struggle to answer the question an investor or government buyer will ask first - why should we choose you? It’s not a criticism but it’s certainly a pattern I’ve seen across technically brilliant sectors for thirty years. The science gets done but the story is what gets left behind.

On 17 March 2026, the UK government made its most significant commitment yet to quantum technology. Two billion pounds. A first-of-its-kind procurement programme, ProQure, inviting quantum companies to partner with government and deliver prototype systems for national infrastructure. Submissions closed on 29 May 2026.

For UK quantum companies, this was the moment they’d been building towards. For many of them, it was also the moment for which they were least prepared.

Our scientists, our spinouts, our error correction research: by almost any measure, Britain punches well above its weight. The challenge isn’t in the lab. It's in the brief, the pitch, the website, the narrative. It’s in the ability to make a procurement panel, staffed not by quantum physicists but by civil servants, commercial leads and policy advisers, understand quickly and confidently why your company is the right choice.

That’s a communications problem, and one I’ve seen the sector has been accumulating for years.

Quantum computing has a well-documented credibility problem.

Google, IBM and Microsoft have each faced criticism for overstating the maturity of their systems. Quantum washing, the quantum equivalent of greenwashing, is part of the sector’s vocabulary. Enterprise buyers and government procurement teams are more sceptical than they were two years ago, and rightly so.

But the answer to combating quantum washing isn’t quantum silence. The companies that will win are those that have found a happy medium between the two - being technically honest, commercially compelling and clear enough that a non-specialist can understand both what the technology does and why it matters right now.

This requires a partner who understands the science well enough not to lose credibility by oversimplifying it and understands the commercial context in order to translate it into something that lands.

The audience has changed. The message hasn’t

Until recently, most UK quantum companies were communicating almost exclusively to other specialists - hardware partners, academic collaborators, specialist investors and government research funders. ProQure changed that equation entirely. The audience is now broader and more demanding. Enterprise CTOs making procurement decisions, government officials evaluating national infrastructure proposals, mainstream investors entering the market for the first time, and the world’s scarcest talent pool choosing which company to spend their career at.

A communication strategy built for only one of those audiences will fail the others. Any company that can’t speak fluently to all of those audiences, without losing credibility with any of them, will find itself at a significant disadvantage in a market that’s consolidating fast.

Oxford Ionics was acquired by IonQ for over a billion dollars last year. In one sense, that’s a remarkable success story. In another, a reminder that the terms, the timing and the leverage in those conversations are shaped partly by how distinctive, discoverable and credible a company is before someone comes knocking. Brand is not vanity in quantum, it’s valuation.

What being inside quantum has taught us

We’re based in Cambridge, at the heart of the UK’s quantum cluster. We work with Riverlane, the global leader in quantum error correction, building the software stack that underpins the UK’s quantum infrastructure ambitions, including the National Quantum Computing Centre at Harwell. When Riverlane needed to build its digital presence, establish authority in QEC and become discoverable to the hardware partners, enterprise clients and government programmes it now serves, they came to us.

We know what it takes to tell a quantum story credibly, accurately and compellingly. We know the difference between what the sector needs to hear and what the market understands.

The science is done. The story needs to catch up.

ProQure has closed, but the pressures that made it urgent haven’t gone anywhere. The next procurement programme, the Series B conversation, the talent you need to hire before a competitor does – all of it depends on the same thing. That’s being able to communicate who you are, what you’ve built and why it matters to people who didn’t study physics.

That’s the gap we work in. If you’re a quantum company thinking about your next funding round or building the employer brand that will attract the people you need, we should talk.

The quantum opportunity is real. The communications gap is real. And the companies that close it first will set the terms for everyone else.