CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Four young quantum technology companies have been chosen for the first class of CO.LAB Q, a yearlong commercialization studio run by The Company Lab in Chattanooga, and their work starts this month.
The accelerator first announced the 12-month program in August. The goal is narrower than research: each startup gets its own plan meant to connect its product with technical experts, infrastructure, pilot projects, investors and, above all, customers who will pay for it.
CEO Tasia Malakasis said the four teams are tackling regional needs such as grid security, monitoring of critical equipment and making quantum computers easier to use. Managing Director Bryan Barringer said every company opens the program with a readiness score that grades the company on leadership, its product, technology, market fit and the business itself, and each one reports to its own review board as the year goes on.
Ridge Quantum holds a license from Oak Ridge National Laboratory for continuous-variable quantum key distribution, a way of using properties of light so two parties can share secret encryption keys. During the studio it plans to test the system on the fiber and quantum network run by EPB, the city-owned utility.
Superquantum makes software that estimates, optimizes and runs workloads on fault-tolerant quantum machines and will benchmark its compiler across different hardware. Esoteriq is building a tool called Rune that tells users what it would cost to load real data into a quantum computer and whether the job is worth running. Kottackal blends quantum and classical sensors with networking and AI and is aiming for an equipment-monitoring pilot with regional energy and industrial firms.
Partners the startups can draw on locally include UTC, Quantinuum and Davidson Technologies, along with EPB.
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