A secretive US start-up founded ­using technology developed at the University of Bristol has raised $230m (£179m) as it seeks to beat Google and IBM in the race to develop a working quantum computer.

PsiQuantum, founded by former Bristol professor Jeremy O’Brien, has secured the funds from investors ­including a venture capital fund co-founded by former Google executive Andy ­Rubin.

It is believed to be one of the biggest investments to date in quantum computing, a potentially world-changing technology that relies on quantum ­mechanics to produce computers more powerful than any existing “classical” counterpart.

Google recently claimed it had achieved “quantum supremacy”, a long sought-after breakthrough in which a quantum computer outperforms the world’s fastest supercomputer, and is now hoping to apply it to real-world ­research.

Quantum computers operate outside the binary “ones” and “zeros” of traditional computers, meaning dramatic leaps in computing power that could be used for medical research, climate modelling and better cybersecurity.

But despite their immense promise, quantum computers have proved notoriously difficult to build because of the inherent instability of “qubits”, the building blocks of the computers.