Colorado’s quantum industry continues to gain traction with another local company raising capital.
Infleqtion, formerly called ColdQuanta, raised approximately $10.8 million in equity this month, according to two filings to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Infleqtion aims to commercialize quantum technology, which can be used to fight infectious diseases, stabilize financial markets, become redundant to GPS systems and more. The company developed a quantum clock and is creating quantum radio-frequency antennas.
“Quantum is a capital-intensive business and so quantum companies will be raising capital often and I’d say this is part of a much larger capital raise,” Infleqtion CEO Matt Kinsella told Colorado Inno.
Kinsella, who has served as Infleqtion’s CEO for fewer than 60 days, referred to the capital raise as an “appetizer” for what’s to come.
“...There will be more to talk about later," he said. "We haven’t even really started that process in earnest yet.”
Kinsella joined Infleqtion from San Francisco-based investment firm Maverick Ventures in early April, replacing Scott Faris, who'd been Infleqtion's CEO since August 2021. Kinsella has also been an Infleqtion investor and board member since 2018.
Infleqtion is based in Louisville with additional offices in Boulder; Chicago; Austin; Madison, Wisconsin; the U.K. and Australia. The company employs about 215 people, most of whom are based in Colorado.
Founded in 2007, Infleqtion’s technology has roots in the University of Colorado Boulder. The company’s first product is a quantum optical clock named Tiqker that can keep time between 10 and 1,000 times more accurately than the typical standard, Kinsella said. The company's timekeeping device is sold to government and commercial entities.
The government is Infleqtion’s biggest customer today, according to Kinsella. It has purchased timekeeping tech from Infleqtion to help U.S. Armed Forces operate without GPS systems.
“If you think about what GPS is, it’s ultimately kind of like a time distribution system,” Kinsella said. “At the backbone of it is time, and so if you can put highly accurate timekeeping devices on locally your trucks, your Jeeps, your Humvees, your ships or submarines, etc. you can become redundant to GPS and therefore be able to operate in a GPS denied environment.”
Kinsella declined to say how much Infleqtion has raised to date. The company secured a $110 million Series B in November 2022. According to a Form D filed around that time, the company raised approximately $130.5 million.
“The nice thing about our model is that everything we’ve raised in equity has been effectively matched with government grant dollars as well,” Kinsella said.
In addition to Infleqtion, at least two other Colorado quantum startups have raised equity in the last few months. Golden-based Vescent grabbed $5 million and Denver’s Maybell Quantum Industries pulled in $25 million.
Colorado aims to receive billions in federal funding as a quantum tech hub to spur job creation and attract more quantum companies to the area. The Centennial State and Mountain West region became a federal quantum tech hub in October and will learn about additional funding within the next few months.
