One of the most widely recognized quantum computing start-ups has ousted its chief operating officer. Rigetti Computing stated in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing this week that it had “terminated” the employment of COO Taryn Naidu as of April 18.
No specific reason was given for the termination. The form stated that Naidu’s departure “was not related to any matter regarding the Company’s financial condition, reported financial results, internal controls or disclosure controls and procedures.”
Rigetti has no current plans to hire another COO, and said in a press release that Naidu’s former responsibilities “will be assumed by current leadership, including Brian Sereda, Chief Financial Officer; Greg Peters, Chief Revenue Officer; Jackie Kaweck, SVP Human Resources; and Lou DeSorbo, Chief Security Officer.”
Of those executives, Peters and DeSorbo have been with Rigetti only since last month, according to LinkedIn, while Sereda and Kaweck both came on board last summer. Naidu had been COO of Rigetti for about three years.
“We continue to build a world-class leadership team in our pursuit of creating an iconic category-defining company,” said Rigetti Founder and CEO Chad Rigetti, in a statement. “We are excited for our next phase of growth as we focus on bringing powerful new quantum processors to market through our Quantum Cloud Services platform and unlocking high-impact applications for enterprise and government customers. We look forward to updating the investment community on our progress during our first quarter earnings call planned for mid-May.”
Naidu’s termination comes less than two months after Rigetti debuted as a publicly traded company after its merger with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Supernova Partners II. Several quantum computing companies have merged with SPACs to go public, and at least one–D-Wave Systems–is in the process of doing so right now.
However, more broadly, SPAC deals have been widely criticized, and in recent weeks several SPAC agreements were canceled, according to a Bloomberg report. Since debuting on Nasdaq in early March, Rigetti’s share price has dropped from around $10 to $5.62 as of late Friday. The company reportedly raised less money than was expected through the SPAC transaction.
The company announced that it plans to report its earnings for the first quarter of 2022 on May 16. In its initial earnings report in March, the company reported 48% year-over-year revenue growth for 2021, but reportedly along with a higher-than-expected loss.
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