The name Zapata reminds us of Frank Zappa. Simply just can’t break that association. For those who don’t already know Frank Zappa, he was one of the most creative non-conforming musicians, who could play just about any musical instrument. We’ll see that perhaps this universal ability to interface with any “hardware” is proving to be quite important in the Quantum Computing space, much like Frank Zappa, able to pick up a guitar or drum sticks. Although it is much more likely that the name derives from the Mexican revolutionary: Emiliano Zapata Salazar.
Zapata, spun out of Harvard in 2017 with eminent founders such as Christopher Savoie, who as well as being a previous founder of multiple businesses was responsible for creating the NLU (Natural Language Understanding) Engine that powers Apple Siri. Others members of the team are celebrated academics in the Quantum field (typically hailing from Harvard). Zapata has managed to raise $21M in its series A funding round, with notable investors such a BASF Venture Capital.
What does Zapata Computing do?
Zapata’s aim is to be a hardware agnostic focused consultancy on a range of areas accelerating the development of a number of sectors ranging from finance to pharma (pharmaceuticals).
…hardware-agnostic solutions for a wide range of industries including chemistry, finance, logistics, pharmaceuticals, engineering, and materials
Zapata Computing Mission
Zapata Quantum Product: Orquestra
Not the easiest word to say, but Orquesta is their one stop-shop for all quantum needs that can work on most quantum hardware and comprises their algorithmic approaches and tools that can be applied to a range of sectors and challenges on a variety of hardware. Zapata say Orquestra can run on everything from classical processors such CPU’s and GPU’s but crucially on the three main commercially viable quantum platforms: Superconducting Qubits, Quantum annealers and Trapped ions.
Their academic credentials and expertise is clearly their selling point in providing consultancy and tools and supplying the expertise to get businesses on-stream.
Similar businesses, although not exclusively in the space are QC Ware for example.