The company said in a securities filing that it laid off most employees on October 9 and planned to wind down its operations. The company had 52 full-time employees as of March 31. Chief executive Christopher Savoie has also resigned, the company said.
While quantum computing hardware is still in development, Zapata has been using its software, based on the principles of quantum mechanics, on current computers to tackle problems including generative artificial intelligence. Researchers in the Harvard chemistry lab of Alán Aspuru-Guzik, who was applying quantum computing to chemistry, formed Zapata in 2017.
The stock prices of other quantum computing startups that also went public by merging with SPACs have also tumbled, as the technology has developed more slowly than expected and sales have failed to materialize. Shares of D-Wave Quantum have lost 90 percent since the company’s 2022 SPAC merger, for example.
Zapata said its demise was caused by a deal made in March with Boston investment firm Sandia Investment Management that required the company to pay Sandia if Zapata’s stock price dropped below $1 for 20 days in any 30 day period. When that happened recently, Sandia demanded a payment of close to $2.5 million, which Zapata said it did not have.
“The company believes that it is presently unable to, and is unlikely to become able to, satisfy all of its financial obligations and that, following the Company’s efforts to satisfy those obligations to the extent of available resources, it is unlikely there will be any assets remaining for distribution to holders of the Company’s outstanding common stock,” Zapata said in its filing. With so few assets, the company does not plan to file for bankruptcy protection.
The company was named after the Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata.
Aaron Pressman can be reached at aaron.pressman@globe.com. Follow him @ampressman.