ColdQuanta closes $6.75 million equity investment in quantum technologies

Aug. 7, 2018

The funding to commercialize ultracold neutral atom technology for secure communications, computing, and metrology.

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ColdQuanta (Boulder, CO) has landed $6.75 million in seed financing from investors led by Maverick Ventures, with participation from Global Frontier Investments. The funding will be used to commercialize ColdQuanta’s ultracold neutral atom technology in the areas of secure quantum communications, neutral atom quantum computing, and quantum metrology (including timekeeping and navigation).

To date, ColdQuanta has been internally financed through contract and product revenue since its founding in 2007. Matthew Kinsella of Maverick and Grant Dollens of Global Frontier have joined the company’s board, along with Timothy Day, who has assumed the role of Executive Chairman.

“ColdQuanta was founded upon the vision that quantum technology would someday emerge as a paradigm having significance on par with those of the transistor and the laser,” said Dana Anderson, ColdQuanta’s CEO. “Having been in the quantum technology manufacturing business since 2007, ColdQuanta is well-poised to enter the emerging quantum era, addressing applications ranging from timekeeping to secure communications, and from navigation to quantum simulation and computation.”

ColdQuanta was founded as a spinoff from the JILA Institute and Physics Department at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Based upon the research of Prof. Anderson, the company focused on developing and commercializing laser-cooled and ultracold atom enabled quantum technologies. It sold its first product in 2008, and has been awarded contracts from numerous federal agencies. It delivered the first commercial quantum gas (Bose-Einstein Condensate) systems, one of which was launched in May 2018 and now resides on the International Space Station.

Related: Space Station Experiment Reaches Ultracold Milestone – news from the Jet Propulsion Lab at CalTech

Source: ColdQuanta

About the Author

Conard Holton | Editor at Large

Conard Holton has 25 years of science and technology editing and writing experience. He was formerly a staff member and consultant for government agencies such as the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and engineering companies such as Bechtel. He joined Laser Focus World in 1997 as senior editor, becoming editor in chief of WDM Solutions, which he founded in 1999. In 2003 he joined Vision Systems Design as editor in chief, while continuing as contributing editor at Laser Focus World. Conard became editor in chief of Laser Focus World in August 2011, a role in which he served through August 2018. He then served as Editor at Large for Laser Focus World and Co-Chair of the Lasers & Photonics Marketplace Seminar from August 2018 through January 2022. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, with additional studies at the Colorado School of Mines and Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.