ColdQuanta launches umbrella brand Infleqtion to lead commercialization – Denver Business Journal – The Business Journals
The Boulder quantum computing company ColdQuanta started the month by announcing its $110 million venture raise that would help push its technology into the commercial market. It ended November on Wednesday with the launch of an umbrella brand that will become the company’s new public face.
ColdQuanta and Super.tech, which ColdQuanta acquired earlier this year, will now exist under the brand Infleqtion. In the announcement, ColdQuanta said the launch marks the company’s transition from research and development of quantum technology to deploying it for commercial uses. Infleqtion was created with the goal of unifying its operations and driving its quantum technology to customers, the company said.
“We believe that the quantum industry is at a turning point as it needs to move beyond research and focus on bringing practical, quantum-enabled solutions to the world,” CEO Scott Faris said in a statement.
Infleqtion’s corporate office will be based in Louisville, and the new brand will serve as the parent company for operations based in Boulder; Chicago; Madison, Wisconsin; Oxford, England; and Japan. The establishment of Infleqtion will require no new staff, a spokesperson said.
The announcement came during the Quantum World Congress in Washington, D.C., where multiple ColdQuanta executives are giving presentations this week. The gathering is the first of its kind, and it brought together quantum researchers, developers, industry experts and elected officials. The goal is to “accelerate the value of the growing quantum industry,” according to event materials.
ColdQuanta, now under Infleqtion, is racing to become one of the first companies to harness and sell quantum tech to commercial customers. With its latest venture round, the company plans to add to its staff of engineers and build out its product portfolio to include its atomic clocks, sensors, computing capability and algorithms.
“Substantial technological, financial and geopolitical drivers are changing the quantum landscape,” Faris said in a statement Wednesday. “Quantum’s time is now and will require bold leadership to bring together the people, capital and ideas to drive the largest technological leap in human history.”
Bob Sutor, Infleqtion’s new vice president and chief quantum advocate, said during the Quantum World Congress that the brand name Infleqtion refers to the inflection point in the quantum industry, Inside Quantum Technology News reported.
“An inflection point is a time of significant change when the rate of progress or focus changes direction,” Sutor told the news outlet.
In addition to its $110 million raise and the launch of Infleqtion, ColdQuanta announced this month it would open a new quantum computing and technology facility at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, called the ColdQuanta-Swinburne Quantum Technology Centre. Breakthrough Victoria, a government-managed fund in Victoria, Australia, lent about $20 million to the Series B round to fund the project.
Faris thinks the new center will help create another pipeline of talent for ColdQuanta. He told the Denver Business Journal earlier this year that the company’s primary limiting factor is access to qualified quantum talent. Along those lines, Sutor testified to Congress in September about the need for the U.S. to invest in a future quantum workforce.
Also this month, TIME magazine named ColdQuanta’s Albert, a cloud-based quantum-matter machine, as one of the top inventions of 2022. ColdQuanta launched the beta version of Albert earlier this year. TIME reported that the technology could allow researchers to access ColdQuanta’s quantum tech through a cloud-based service and design their own innovations. One possible use, TIME wrote, is to create tech that enable autonomous vehicles to never lose their GPS signals.
“The market and investors have recognized that quantum technologies like sensors, clocks, and RF receivers are the near-term applications that will propel the quantum industry forward,” ColdQuanta said in a statement Wednesday. “These technologies serve as critical building blocks of quantum today as the industry works towards the massive gains quantum computing will bring in the future.”
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