Qolab
Superconducting quantum-computing hardware startup co-founded by 2025 Physics Nobel laureate John Martinis (CTO), Alan Ho (CEO, ex-Google Quantum AI Head of Product), and UW–Madison professor Robert McDermott (Head of Hardware). Focus is wafer-scale, semiconductor-compatible transmon fabrication, applying 300 mm CMOS tooling and a subtractive-etch window- junction process to replace traditional lift-off for higher-yield, reproducible qubit chips. Engineering office in Los Angeles with the device lab in Madison, Wisconsin; the first quantum startup incubated at UW–Madison.
Timeline
Current flagship
Qolab Start — superconducting transmon QPU platform (hardware-research and workforce-development tier)
Milestones
- 2026-04John Martinis Grants for superconducting-qubit research launched with IQCC
- 2026-03John Martinis Prize announced for scalable quantum hardware research
- 2026-02-23Research-collaboration agreement with Singapore's NQFF on wafer-scale cryogenic low-pass filters (announced at EmTech Asia; witnessed by Minister Josephine Teo)
- 2025-12First Qolab superconducting-qubit device deployed at the Israeli Quantum Computing Center (IQCC) in Tel Aviv via Quantum Machines partnership
- 2025-10Co-founder & CTO John Martinis awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics
- 2024-12Series A financing of $16M+ led by Octave Ventures (DBJ, WARF, Phoenix Venture Partners co-investing)
- 2024-10Development Bank of Japan invests $3.5M strategic stake
- 2024-08Company publicly launched; UW–Madison-incubated; Applied Materials retrofitted facilities for qubit fabrication partnership
Roadmap
Capability details
Quantum computing
- Qubit type
- transmon
- Physical qubits
- —
- Logical qubits
- 0
- 1Q gate fidelity
- —
- 2Q gate fidelity
- —
- T₁
- —
- T₂
- —
- EC code
- —
- Connectivity
- —
11 unverified fields
-
modalities.qc.physical_qubits_current -
modalities.qc.one_q_fidelity -
modalities.qc.two_q_fidelity -
modalities.qc.coherence_t1_ms -
modalities.qc.coherence_t2_ms -
modalities.qc.ec_code -
modalities.qc.connectivity -
modalities.qc.gate_set -
modalities.qc— Early-stage hardware company; Qolab Start is a research/characterization platform rather than a benchmarked commercial QPU. No public per-device fidelity, qubit count, or coherence numbers as of last verification. -
shareholders— Private company; no individual stake percentages disclosed. Stake_class assignments are inferred from the announced lead/co-investor structure. -
key_personnel.3.since
People
References
- blog https://qolab.ai/about Company About page — founders, leadership, mission
- blog https://qolab.ai/product Qolab Start product page
- press https://thequantuminsider.com/2026/02/24/singapore-qolab-cryogenic-filters-quantum-chips/ NQFF Singapore cryogenic-filter collaboration (Feb 2026)
- press https://www.edb.gov.sg/en/about-edb/media-releases-publications/singapore-researchers-partner-qolab-to-scale-quantum-tech.html Singapore EDB media release on Qolab-NQFF partnership
- preprint https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.10406 Martinis et al., 'How to Build a Quantum Supercomputer: Scaling from Hundreds to Millions of Qubits' (arXiv 2411.10406, Nov 2024) — Qolab-era scaling roadmap
- press https://www.quantum-machines.co/blog/john-martinis-qolab-first-quantum-chip-iqcc-announcement/ IQCC Tel Aviv first-deployment announcement (Dec 2025)