A Cambridge quantum software company, founded in 2016, that builds the error-correction technology needed to make quantum computers reliable enough to be useful.
Riverlane is a Cambridge company working on quantum error correction. Quantum computers are very easily disturbed, and their calculations go wrong all the time. Error correction is the set of methods that spot and fix those mistakes while the computer is working, and Riverlane describes it as the defining challenge of the whole field. Its main product is Deltaflow, a system that does this correction and is designed to work with different kinds of qubits, the basic units of a quantum computer. At its heart is a decoder, a program that works out what errors happened, and Riverlane also designs patented chips to do this decoding at very high speed. The company says it supplies more than half of the world's quantum computing companies.
Steve Brierley founded the company in Cambridge in 2016, and registered it in July 2016 as a quantum software company. Its history page says it started as three people, Steve, Oscar Higgott and Daochen Wang, working from the ideaSpace co-working hub, with five more joining soon after. Dr Brierley, who was awarded an OBE in January 2024, had concluded from a 2015 conference that small quantum computers were improving steadily enough that useful ones might be possible within a decade. In late 2019 a consortium of UK quantum hardware companies won Innovate UK funding to develop Deltaflow. Riverlane's mission, which the company says has not changed since day one, is "to make quantum computing useful far sooner than previously imaginable".
The company's roots and head office are in Cambridge, and it is backed by the University of Cambridge. Its website also lists offices in Boston in the United States and Delft in the Netherlands, and one page mentions San Francisco. Its own pages give differing headcounts, from nearly 100 on its team page to more than 180 on its about page, so the number has grown or the pages are from different times. In 2025 it announced work on three UK Quantum Missions pilot projects with Rigetti, Oxford Quantum Circuits and Oxford Ionics, each aimed at error correction on a different type of hardware.
The people pages show a company that mixes quantum science, hardware, software and business. They name leaders in engineering, product, quantum science and business development, a chief operating officer who focuses on building high-performing teams, and People and Culture and talent teams. One leader on the team page emphasises quality, reliability and time to market. We did not find a values statement or a description of daily working life, so we cannot describe the atmosphere in detail.
Riverlane employs quantum scientists who study and design error-correcting codes, software and firmware engineers, chip designers who build the decoder hardware, product managers, delivery staff who work with hardware partners, and business, operations and people teams. Maths, physics, computer science and electronics are all useful starting points. The company's website lists its current roles.
Website: www.riverlane.com
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