Our story
Riverlane was founded in 2016 by Steve Brierley, a senior research fellow in computational mathematics at the University of Cambridge. At that time, the majority view in the global quantum computing community was that 'useful' quantum computing was more than 20 years away - or might never happen.
Steve's own research identified a quantum 'Moore's law' whereby small-scale quantum computers were doubling in power every two years, meaning useful quantum computing at scale could be achievable within a decade. Armed with this evidence, the support of Cambridge University and intensive guidance from ARM co-founder Jamie Urquhart amongst many others, he founded Riverlane from his kitchen table and has never looked back.
About us
Today, Riverlane is nearly 100 strong with offices in Cambridge, Boston and San Francisco. The company's mission - to make quantum computing useful far sooner than previously imaginable - remains unchanged from day one.
Deltaflow.OS, our operating system for error corrected quantum computing, is how we achieve this. We partner with many of the world's leading quantum computing hardware companies, labs and governments. We're backed by the University of Cambridge and leading technology VC firms.
Our management team
Steve Brierley
CEO and Founder
Steve Brierley is founder and CEO of Riverlane, which is building the Operating System for error corrected quantum computers. He founded the company in 2016, because of his passionate belief that fault tolerant quantum computers will be capable of accelerating a significant era of human progress and could be built far sooner than previously imaginable. Today, Riverlane is well on its way to achieving that mission.
Steve has worked in quantum for 20 years and is an expert advisor to the UK government. He holds a PhD in quantum information and has spent almost a decade in the intelligence community as a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge, leading major research projects in quantum computing.
Marco Ghibaudi
VP Engineering
Marco is an expert in delivering deep-tech prototypes and products. He holds a joint CERN/SSSUP Phd in Innovative Technologies with emphasis on highly constrained systems. Marco has produced novel solutions in high energy physics, intelligent cars, smart cities, internet of things, virtual reality and optical communications.
From small scale software solutions to multi-million units per year hardware chips, Marco has always focused on quality, reliability and time to market. Marco deeply believes that real innovation comes from the joint efforts of research and development.
Cory Vander Jagt
VP Business Development & Strategic Alliances
Cory has over 15 years experience bringing new technologies to market through strategic partnerships. As VP of Business Development and Strategic Alliances at Riverlane, Cory is passionate about establishing partnerships that accelerate the adoption of Riverlane products and unleash the power of quantum computers.
Cory has an engineering degree from the University of Michigan, and was previously a founding member of the partner organisations at Salesforce.com, GoodData, and GitHub. Cory lives with his family in Truckee, California where they enjoy a variety of outdoor activities including hiking, mountain biking, and skiing.
Bek Simmons
Chief Operating Officer
Bek is responsible for building world-class teams and scaling company operations to enable Riverlane to reach its strategic goals. Bek enjoys supporting and empowering high-performing teams and has a supreme talent for driving work to completion.
Bek has 15 years' experience within leading health, research and higher education organisations. She co-founded THIS Institute, a £42m healthcare research institute at the University of Cambridge, building a team of 35 people in one year. Bek also has experience in fundraising and stakeholder management across a range of sectors and countries as Chief of Staff at the University of Cambridge.
Bek holds a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from the Open University. Outside of work, she runs, reads and plays a mean game of squash.
Glenn Manoff
Chief Marketing Officer
Glenn brings over 20 years experience in C-level Communications, Marketing and Sustainability roles at leading technology companies, including Trustpilot, O2, Telefonica, Ebone and EE.
As a key member of the management team that scaled Trustpilot from startup to global market leader and unicorn IPO, Glenn developed the brand into a universal symbol of trust with billions of online brand impressions every month.
At O2, he co-led the European launch of the iPhone, helped transform the Millennium Dome into The O2, built one of Europe's most successful social impact and sustainability programmes (Think Big) and was part of the management team that transformed the company from last to first place in a hyper-competitive market.
Outside of work, Glenn coaches baseball, is vice chair of youth music charity Future Talent and loves listening to old jazz records.
Maria Maragkou
VP of Product
Maria has over a decade of experience in quantum technology. As Head of Business Development at Riverlane, she built a network of global partners and a deep understanding of the global quantum computing ecosystem. As VP of Product, she is developing solutions that address those needs.
Maria has a PhD in Physics from the University of Southampton and an MBA from Kedge business school. After 4 years of post-doctoral research on single photon sources, she worked in science publishing as a Senior Editor at Nature Materials. Outside of work, she swims, works on her headstand and plays with her sons.
Amelia Armour
Partner - Amadeus Capital Partners
Amelia is a Principal in the Early Stage Fund at Amadeus Capital Partners with an investment focus of autonomous systems, AI and machine learning, cloud computing, digital health and medical technology.
As well as sitting on the board of Riverlane she is Director at other technology companies including Paragraf, delivering the capabilities of graphene to the real world; Immense Simulations, an intelligent mobility enabling software company and SLAMcore, a spin-out from Imperial College, developing spatial intelligence for autonomous robotics and drones.
Amelia holds a BSc in Chemistry and Biology from Durham University and is a mentor on the Judge Business School's Accelerate Programme.
Stuart Chapman
Managing Partner and Founder - Molten Ventures
Stuart was a Director of 3i Ventures in London before he co-founded Molten Ventures. He has over 25 years of venture capital experience in Europe and the US - including founding 3i US in Menlo Park, CA. Stuart was responsible for Molten's investments in Lagan Technology (sold to Verint), Redkite (sold to Nice) and Kiadis (sold to Sanofi). Stuart serves as a director with Netronome, Aircall, Resolver, Realeyes, Riverlane and Conversocial; and as observer with Graphcore and Crate.
Before 3i, Stuart was involved in software and systems implementations for Midland Bank. He is a graduate of Loughborough University and currently serves on the Strategic Advisory Board for the Loughborough School of Business.
Hermann Hauser
Venture Partner - Amadeus Capital Partners
In 2015 Hermann was awarded an KBE for services to Engineering and Industry.
Serial Entrepreneur and Co-founder of Amadeus Capital Partners, Dr Hermann Hauser KBE has wide experience in developing and financing companies in the information technology sector. He co-founded a number of high-tech companies including Acorn Computers which spun out ARM, E-trade UK, Virata and Cambridge Network. Subsequently Hermann became vice president of research at Olivetti. During his tenure at Olivetti, he established a global network of research laboratories. Since leaving Olivetti, Hermann has founded over 20 technology companies. In 1997, he co-founded Amadeus Capital Partners. At Amadeus he invested in CSR, Solexa, Icera, Xmos and Cambridge Broadband.
Hermann is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Institute of Physics, the Royal Society of Chemistry and of the Royal Academy of Engineering, as well as an Honorary Fellow of King's College, Cambridge. In 2001 he was awarded an Honorary CBE for 'innovative service to the UK enterprise sector'. In 2004 he was made a member of the Government's Council for Science and Technology and in 2013 he was made a Distinguished Fellow of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT.
Hermann has honorary doctorates from the Universities of Loughborough, Bath, Anglia Ruskin, Strathclyde, Glasgow and York.
Elaine Loukes
Investment Director - Cambridge Enterprise
Elaine is an Investment Director in the Seed Funds team, focusing on spin-out opportunities emerging from the physical sciences. Since joining Cambridge Enterprise, she has spun-out nine new companies and worked on several follow-on funding rounds. She has held many director positions and currently sits on the boards of PervasID, Intellegens, Sorex, Xampla and CB2Tech as well as being an observer of AudioTelligence and Riverlane.
She has extensive experience in all stages of the investment process including due diligence, financial modelling, deal negotiation and investment management.
Elaine has worked in early-stage tech investing since 2001. At Dresdner Kleinwort Capital, she sourced new investment opportunities and managed the direct-investment portfolio for early-stage tech deals as well as leading on a £2bn fund of funds secondary sale. At PUK Ventures she focused on early-stage tech opportunities emerging from the public sector and UK universities.
Elaine has a BSc in Laser Physics and Optoelectronics (University of Strathclyde), a PhD in Physics (Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton) and qualified as a Chartered Accountant (ICAEW) in 2000.
Elaine Joined Cambridge Enterprise in December 2015.
Andrew Williamson
Managing Partner - Cambridge Innovation Capital
Andrew Williamson is the Managing Partner and specialises in technology investments. He has hands on experience of building technology businesses, coupled with a venture investing background and an understanding of Cambridge and its academic institutes.
Prior to joining CIC, he was at True North Venture Partners in Chicago where he was a partner in its $300 million venture fund. Before this Andrew spent ten years leading materials science and semiconductor research in US government research laboratories, followed by managing director positions at venture capital funds Physic Ventures in San Francisco and MalibuIQ in Los Angeles.
Andrew studied at the University of Cambridge as both an undergraduate and a graduate, receiving an MA in Natural Sciences and a PhD in Physics. He also holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
Andrew manages CIC's investments in Audio Analytic, AudioTelligence, Imagen, Origami Energy, PervasID, PragmatIC, Prowler.io, Riverlane, Swim.ai and Undo.
Featured experts
Kauser Johar
Head of Silicon
Kauser joined Riverlane in July 2021, following his position as technical lead of High Performance CPUs at ARM.
"I find solutions to problems - and Riverlane is very much a multidisciplinary team of many different skills, the mindset being that there are many ways to approach and solve a problem."
Tell me about your background.
From a young age I have been interested in mechanical engineering; tearing objects apart to rebuild them. I followed in the footsteps of my older brother, studying electronics engineering in India. I then went onto study microelectronics in Liverpool, UK. I was awarded a scholarship at ARM, working initially within their research team. I remained at ARM for 12 years', managing a large team designing CPUs for automative, hard real-time and safety-critical applications.
Why did you decide to move on to join Riverlane?
I initially heard about Riverlane in the local Cambridge press. My understanding of quantum computing was limited, but my interest was piqued by how relatively new it was and how I could use my experience to make a real impact in this new field. I applied for a senior software engineering role despite having a hardware background. My skills resonated with the company - I was hired as a principal engineer before being promoted to Head of Silicon in February 2022.
What does your role entail?
I enjoy taking on unsolved problems and finding the solutions. In Riverlane my focus is to look at parts of our operating system stack that need acceleration in performance via dedicated hardware. Part of my role requires building and being responsible for a multi-disciplinary team, ensuring we can build solutions that meet the requirements of our customers.
Alise Virbule
Product Manager
Alise achieved her PhD in Theory and Simulation, where she researched how high performance computing helps with materials science problems. She moved into product management at a digital Insurance startup, before joining Riverlane as Product Manager.
"We must ask the question, 'how do we bridge that promising future of what quantum computing will enable with the technology we have now?"
Tell me about your role at Riverlane
The goal of product managers is to ensure our technology aligns with commercial realities. We work on solutions for quantum hardware companies; a large part of my role is understanding their needs deeply. I act as a bridge between different functions at Riverlane, and external customers with impressive R&D. As a team, we come up with a value hypotheses and test these against the reality of what our customers need.
What are your key challenges?
The academic and commercial worlds are not always aligned - we must ask the question, “How do we bridge that promising future of what quantum computing will enable with the technology that we have now?” there is optimism, and a huge amount of potential for quantum computing, yet there are immense technical challenges we face now that will take time to overcome. Another key challenge in my role is to bring together the deeply technical scientific research with the shorter term product development goals, and build a shared understanding between our researchers and software developers, as well as colleagues working in business development.
What do you enjoy most about your work?
I enjoy working in cross functional teams and building tech through the lens of real-world applicability. I missed the boat on the early days of classical computing, but quantum is the next frontier and it's an amazing opportunity to be working at the cutting edge.
Nick Chen
Principal Product Manager
Nick has a PhD in Computer Science. He started his career at Microsoft initially as a human-computing interaction researcher, before moving into product management. Nick now leads the Runtime team at Riverlane to build Deltaflow.OS, the operating system for error corrected quantum computers.
"Be customer focussed not company focussed"
Tell me about your role at Riverlane.
My role is to predominately achieve three things; create clarity, generate excitement and deliver success. Creating clarity is probably my number one focus, leading the team on the what and most importantly the why. Our goal in building Deltaflow.OS, is to take the complexity away from the user to develop a product that works, meets their needs, and helps with a shared goal to accelerate the usefulness of quantum hardware.
What have you learnt from experience that you bring to your approach at Riverlane?
The importance of partnerships. Something I learned while at Microsoft was that you don't need to be able to do everything as a company, instead, zone in on the company's core strengths, and work with others who can add additional value with their expertise. Secondly, the emphasis to be customer focussed not company focussed. Continually test your products and dive deep into customer feedback, constantly trying different ways of asking questions to search for the truth.
What excites you about Riverlane?
Riverlane has a growth mindset, people aren't limited within their job roles, instead they can learn and develop into whatever areas they want to. There is the opportunity to learn fast at Riverlane - for me it's been like acquiring ten years of experience compressed into two!
Our team
