Duality Cohort 4 startup Photon Queue recently took first place at a Quantum Startup Pitch Competition – highlighting strong interest in its simple and efficient quantum memory solutions.
Among previous winners of the competition is Duality Cohort 1 startup, qBraid, which took second place at the completion during its inaugural year in 2021. The event takes place during the annual Q2B Silicon Valley conference.
Photon Queue was one of six companies that pitched to a panel of judges and a room full of attendees – and it was CEO Nathan Arnold’s first public pitch. While “slightly nervous,” weeks of practice leading up to the event gave him confidence, he said.
“After finishing my pitch with five seconds left on the timer, I was asked some brilliant questions by the judges,” added Arnold. “The organizer, David Yiptong of the QAI Accelerator, told me that my pitch was so well-executed that he was sure I was the non-technical ‘business guy’ of the company, and that he was shocked when I told the crowd that I am the PhD student that developed our core technology.”
Completing his PhD at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Arnold is a member of Paul Kwiat’s lab, out of which the core technology was initially developed. The startup’s team also includes other graduate students in the Kwiat Quantum Information Group, Colin Lualdi and Kelsey Oritz, and postdoctoral researcher Kai Shinbrough.
“After the competition, I was immediately approached by several investors that expressed serious interest in what we are doing at Photon Queue,” said Arnold. “This continued for the rest of Q2B, with several investors and CEOs telling me I did great and that our technology is very interesting. Even some of my competitors in the competition told me that they would fund me if they could.”
A high not eon which to end 2024, Arnold said the startup is moving forward into the New Year with several exciting next steps – starting with follow-up conversation with the many investors they met at Q2B.
“At the same time, we are currently initiating a contract with a National Laboratory as our first customer, and plan to deliver them a quantum memory in Q3 of 2025,” he said. Photon Queue also plans to expand its team to support product development and are looking for interns as part of its growth.