Insider Brief
- Qolab joins the Chicago Quantum Exchange (CQE) as a corporate partner, reinforcing its commitment to collaboration while pursuing utility-scale quantum computing innovations.
- With $16 million in Series A funding and partnerships with organizations like Applied Materials, Qolab is working to improve superconducting qubits to enhance quantum computer performance.
- Founded by former Google Quantum AI leaders, Qolab is expanding its Madison workforce and leveraging CQE collaborations to advance practical quantum computing.
- Image: Qolab quantum hardware engineers at work in the lab. (IQolab.)
PRESS RELEASE — Qolab, the first quantum computing startup incubated at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, has joined the CQE as a corporate partner — a move that its leaders say underscores the company’s foundational commitment to collaboration.
The company, which has attracted millions of dollars in financing and is working now to hire hardware engineers in Madison, aims to build a utility-scale quantum computer by collaborating with industry and academic partners to make higher-quality superconducting qubits, a building block of quantum technology.
“The Chicago Quantum Exchange was founded on the idea that collaboration is essential to the advancement of quantum information science and engineering, a value that Qolab shares,” said David Awschalom, the Liew Family Professor of Molecular Engineering and Physics at the University of Chicago and the director of the Chicago Quantum Exchange. “We look forward to partnering with them as they expand their workforce and their efforts to advance quantum technology.”
Qolab’s work focuses on improving qubits, building blocks that use the principles of quantum mechanics to hold much more information than the classical bits used in non-quantum computers. Getting qubits to maintain the complex quantum state that gives them that immense computational power is difficult. Qolab seeks to improve superconducting qubit coherence, extending the amount of time the qubit maintains its state without errors.
Part of that project involves a collaboration with another CQE corporate partner, Applied Materials — which develops advanced tooling for the semiconductor industry — to fabricate qubits in new and advanced ways.
“Joining the Chicago Quantum Exchange has already proven invaluable for Qolab. It has facilitated key hires and opened doors to exciting collaboration opportunities with the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park,” said Qolab CEO Alan Ho, former Head of Product at Google’s Quantum AI team. He cofounded Qolab with John Martinis, former Head of Hardware at Google’s Quantum AI team, and Robert McDermott, the Roeske Professor of Physics at UW–Madison.
“We are excited to continue our collaboration with CQE to accelerate the development of a practical quantum computer,” said Ho, who is also an advisor for Duality startup accelerator alum Icosa Computing.
Qolab recently secured over $16 million in Series A financing from financial and strategic investors, including a $5 million investment from the Development Bank of Japan Inc. The company hopes to grow to 19 employees in 2025.
The CQE is based at the University of Chicago and anchored by the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Northwestern University, and Purdue University. The CQE includes more than 50 corporate, international, nonprofit, and regional partners.
