Quantum News Nexus

Photon Queue, a quantum memory firm that emerged from the University of Illinois in 2024, announced the closing of its oversubscribed $4 million seed funding round, which was led by Playground Global.

Quantum memory, which stores quantum information similar to how random access memory stores information in classical computing, will be increasingly important as quantum computers and quantum networks continue to scale. For example, the technology is key to distributed quantum computing systems in which many processors are linked together. It also is critical for developing quantum repeaters that eventually will allow quantum networks to extend for much longer distances. Companies like Qunnect, memQ, Lightsynq (now part of IonQ), and QTI are just a few of the start-ups that have done important work in the field of quantum memory.

As Photon Queue’s name suggests, The Champaign, Illinois, company appears to have a particular focus around memory for storage of photonic qubits (Playground Capital also notably was an early investor in photonic quantum computing firm PsiQuantum.) Although, the firm said its technology is applicable across photonic, trapped ion, neutral-atom, and other quantum computing architectures. 

Photon Queue already claims contracts for quantum memory devices with Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, and the University of Maryland that validate demand from leading institutions at the forefront of quantum computing and photonic systems research. The New Mexico connection has translated to a lot of early funding for Photon Queue, as Playground’s Genesis Fund is focused on organizations helping to make New Mexico a national hub for quantum and related technologies. Photon Queue also earlier gained $500,000 from the New Mexico Economic Development Department and Roadrunner Venture Studios.

The company said the seed money will help accelerate its product development, manufacturing capabilities and customer deployments. It claims an edge in developing room-temperature memory devices. From Photon Queue press release: “Photon Queue’s devices store photons directly in free-space optical loops using proprietary high-reflectivity mirror systems and optical switches. Unlike other approaches that require cryogenics, vacuum systems or complex transduction processes, Photon Queue’s devices operate at room temperature using standard power, while delivering ultra-high efficiency and world-leading bandwidth.”

“Useful quantum computing will require photons to move through networks with extraordinary precision, efficiency and timing. That is the problem Photon Queue was founded to solve,” said Nathan Arnold, co-founder and CEO of Photon Queue. “In less than two years, we have taken technology from the lab to deployed commercial hardware with leading national lab and university customers. Our work with Sandia and the University of Maryland is a major validation point that quantum memory is becoming essential infrastructure for the next era of computing.”

Photon Queue is led by Arnold and fellow co-founder Kelsey Ortiz, who is CTO. That start-up is a graduate of the Duality Quantum Accelerator, a corporate partner of the Chicago Quantum Exchange and the winner of the Q2B Startup Pitch Competition. Arnold is also a fellow at Chain Reaction Innovations at Argonne National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy entrepreneurship program.

Image: co-founders Nathan Arnold, CEO, and Kelsey Ortiz, CTO (Source: Photon Queue)

Quantum News Nexus is a site from freelance writer and editor Dan O’Shea that covers quantum computing, quantum sensing, quantum networking, quantum-safe security, and more. You can find him on X @QuantumNewsGuy and doshea14@gmail.com.