Photo above (left to right): Prof. Nir Davidson, Dr. Guy Raz, Prof. Yoav Sagi, Prof. Ofer Firstenberg

Tel Aviv based  Neutral Atom quantum computing company, Q-Factor, announced $24 million in seed funding. The round was led by NFX and TPY Capital, with participation from Intel Capital, Korea Investment Partners, Deep33, and the Matias family. The Technion and Weizmann Institute of Science are also shareholders in the company. Neutral atoms have rapidly emerged as one of the most promising approaches to quantum computing. They are naturally inert, capable of holding quantum information for extended periods, yet precisely controllable using light alone, without the need for extreme cooling or complex wiring.

However, current quantum computers remain too small by orders of magnitude to deliver real commercial value. Breaking past a few thousand qubits to the hundreds of thousands or millions required for useful computation demands. Q-Factor was founded to tackle this challenge. Q-Factor was founded by Prof. Nir Davidson, a world-renowned authority in ultracold atoms with 280 published papers and former dean of physics at the Weizmann Institute of Science; Prof. Ofer Firstenberg of the Weizmann Institute, an expert in quantum optics and Rydberg atoms, formerly of Harvard and MIT; Prof. Yoav Sagi of the Technion, a leading authority in neutral-atom manipulation, formerly of JILA and the University of Colorado; and Dr. Guy Raz, a physicist with 20 years of technical leadership for multiple deep tech startups.

The founders closely analyzed the limitations of current neutral atom quantum computing, and have identified the architectural bottlenecks that prevent current platforms from scaling beyond a few thousand qubits. Q-Factor has developed an approach to overcome them and scale to over one million. “The quantum computing industry needs a revolution, not an evolution,” said Prof. Ofer Firstenberg, co-founder and chief scientist of Q-Factor.

“Current systems are too small to deliver on the promise of quantum computing, and incremental improvements alone aren’t going to close that gap. We’ve developed an architecture designed for continuous scalability, a Moore’s Law-like trajectory that can take neutral atom systems from thousands of qubits to millions and beyond.”

“Q-Factor’s founding team combines world-class scientific depth with a clear-eyed understanding of what it will take to build a commercially viable quantum computer,” said Lisa Cohen, Investment Director at Intel Capital. “They’ve watched the field evolve, learned from the challenges others have encountered, and assembled the right expertise to tackle the hardest remaining problem in quantum computing: scale.”