Globes readers choose Quantum Source as favorite 2026 startup

Quantum Supply, which is creating a quantum laptop based mostly on the mix of photons and chilly atoms, and which was based by a group of Weizmann Institute alumni and serial chip entrepreneurs, has been voted by “Globes” readers as their favourite startup, as a part of the Globes Most Promising Startup Rankings for 2026.

In second place was Hoopo, which has developed a system for managing the logistics provide chain at sea by figuring out industrial gear with out using GPS. In third place: was fintech firm April, which has developed AI-based techniques for submitting annual tax returns within the US.

Some 3,500 “Globes” web site readers voted over the previous week within the ballot, which included 30 progress startups. Different startups within the ballot included: AirEV, the electrical flying car (eVTOL) producer from Pardes Hanna; Kela, the cybercrime risk intelligence firm; Fantastic, the AI agent firm; Jerusalem-based Factify, which seeks to interchange PDF paperwork.; and Quantum Artwork, which has developed an end-to-end quantum laptop based mostly on trapped ions, and which additionally makes use of atoms.

The readers’ alternative is made alongside the rating of “Globes” 10 most promising startups for 2026, which will likely be revealed for the twentieth time subsequent Wednesday, June 17, on the Globes TECH IL convention. The convention, which can host senior figures equivalent to Ami Luttwak, one of many founders of Wiz, Shlomo Kramer, Liad Agmon, Michal Braverman-Blumenstyk, Hamutal Meridor, Eyal Freund and Hila Zigman, will concentrate on the red-hot tendencies within the tech business, international alternate challenges, the key exits in cybersecurity, and the increase in protection tech.

Breakthrough resolution

Based mostly in Ness Ziona, Quantum Supply was based by Prof. Barak Dayan, a famend physicist from the Weizmann Institute. He operated one of many two quantum photonics laboratories on the Weizmann Institute after getting back from postgraduate research at Caltech, the place he labored with some of the excellent scientists within the discipline. Dayan sought to develop a quantum laptop – a pc that harnesses particular bodily properties of sunshine particles for quantum computing, and which could possibly be quicker than essentially the most highly effective supercomputers presently obtainable, based mostly on quantum mechanics. However he felt thwarted by one of many worst properties of photons: the rays don’t talk with one another, so it is rather tough to construct a pc from them.

The answer he discovered was the flexibility to harness atoms to hyperlink photons with a view to create the “logic gates”, the way in which through which gentle rays are organized to create numerous computational operations. He based Quantum Supply after serving as an knowledgeable on a process for the Pitango Basis: analyzing its funding in one other quantum photon firm: Australia’s PsiQuantum, an organization that was well-known for large quantum photon computer systems the dimensions of a soccer discipline. “I advised our buddies at PsiQuantum concerning the concept of harnessing gentle rays to one another utilizing an atom – their scientists admitted to me that nobody had this expertise earlier than us,” Dayan tells “Globes.”

The corporate was based by Dayan along with three outstanding computing entrepreneurs in Israel: CEO Oded Melamed, who based and bought Altair Semiconductor to Sony a couple of decade in the past for $212 million (Sony lately determined to promote Altair’s operations); VP of R&D Gil Semo, a former member of the administration of Anobit, Apple’s first acquisition in Israel and former VP {hardware}; and Chairman Dan Charash, former CEO of chip firm Provident, which was bought to Broadcom final decade. The group was joined in Might 2023 by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who sits on the board. Bennett was previously CEO of fintech firm Cyota, which was bought to RSA, and was an investor in software program firm Soluto, which was acquired by Asurion.

Particles that may be in two locations directly

Quantum computer systems exist already right this moment, however they can’t be used considerably on a big scale, actually to not exchange Nvidia’s environment friendly supercomputers. The issue lies within the problem that these computer systems are designed to unravel: exploiting the non-trivial property of microscopic particles equivalent to ions, atomic particles, or photons that create gentle waves for significantly highly effective computing. In response to quantum concept, which was formulated a century in the past, very small particles equivalent to gentle waves or ions may be in two locations on the similar time.

Intuitively it is a property that’s obscure since it’s not a attribute of huge objects, however at ranges under the molecule. It’s scientifically confirmed and already right this moment firms that develop quantum computer systems testify to its existence. Think about a coin that’s spinning quickly – in the event you cease it, it would solely present one aspect – a tree or a leaf – however whereas it’s spinning, it exhibits each side on the similar time.

Particles that may be in a number of locations directly may revolutionize the way in which computer systems have labored for the reason that twentieth. Century. As an alternative of processing data based mostly on a variable electrical voltage that distinguishes between zero and one, all the vary of prospects between zero and one could possibly be obtained by exploiting the flexibility of an ion or photon to concurrently behave as a zero and a one, or on the similar time any quantity on the continuum between zero and one. One such particle that represents a number of numbers directly is known as a “qubit”, the smallest processing unit in a quantum laptop, equal to a “bit” in a conventional laptop.

As a result of a qubit represents a number of numbers directly, it’s able to performing a a lot bigger variety of calculations than a daily bit, and as an alternative of doing this serially – one after the opposite – as a daily laptop does, a quantum laptop would be capable to course of all this information in parallel, concurrently. Because of this the event of a brand new drug molecule will likely be shortened from a technique of years to minutes – via a digital experiment performed inside the pc, all the probabilities for the feasibility of the molecule and the reactions it would create concurrently with different molecules will likely be calculated.

Not like the normal laptop constructed on digital circuits built-in with semiconductors, quantum computing is in its infancy, with a number of applied sciences competing from totally different instructions within the race to achieve the “quantum benefit” – the second when a quantum laptop will likely be extra highly effective than Nvidia’s strongest supercomputer. Whereas essentially the most mature applied sciences in the marketplace right this moment come from superconductors – that is how IBM and Google’s quantum chips are constructed – or from trapped ions (the Quantum and IonQ computer systems), photonic quantum computing stays within the shadows, with one dominant firm: PsiQuantum. Solely on the finish of final yr, PsiQuantum raised $1 billion, at a valuation of $7 billion, to construct two photonic supercomputers the dimensions of a producing plant every – one in Australia and the opposite close to Chicago.

A “hybrid” quantum laptop the dimensions of a server

Prof. Dayan, collectively along with his good friend of Melamed, following the Australian firm’s suggestions, determined to embark on an extended journey of feasibility testing. “We set out on a three-year journey of calculations – we did not run straight to buyers,” remembers Dayan.

Quantum Supply believes will probably be capable of create a functioning quantum laptop with tens of millions of “qubits” and a scale no bigger than a median Nvidia or AMD server rack, and that will probably be attainable to put it in information facilities sooner or later. That is in distinction to the maximalist strategy of PsiQuantum, which claims that the one manner to do that is utilizing computer systems the dimensions of a stadium. The massive problem that quantum photonics firms encounter issues how they harness the sunshine rays to one another to supply a logic gate, that’s, the fundamental information that the sunshine rays will symbolize within the quantum calculation in a while – whether or not the rays symbolize 0 or 1, or 0.5 for that matter.

Whereas PsiQuantum passes the photons via meters-long tubes to extend the possibility of making an interplay between them, within the Israeli firm the coupling of the 2 photons is accelerated by confining frozen atoms in particular vacuum tubes, which in flip bind two photons on a normal photonic chip generally utilized in business. Prof. Dayan calls his quantum laptop a “hybrid” one, which mixes the benefits of photons and atoms.

“The effectivity of making a photon is low and its binding along with different photons is extraordinarily low, due to this, PsiQuantum reaches an effectivity of 1 in one million. To speed up and optimize this course of we use atoms however you do not want quite a lot of hundred of them to bind an infinite variety of photons to create tens of millions of qubits, and from there the way in which to creating a robust laptop is open.”

The optical fiber, says Dayan, is an inexpensive and customary means, and can be utilized to translate many parts from the normal computing world to quantum computing. Winding a fiber and “trapping” photons in it to delay them from reaching the processing chip and might truly create a reminiscence aspect, much like a conventional laptop, and by creating loops and windings to construct a robust laptop structure that may extra simply accommodate tens of millions of qubits utilizing the identical coupling and reminiscence parts.

Not like different quantum firms, Quantum Supply has not but launched a quantum processor. Dayan believes that even those who have launched quantum processors haven’t been capable of show enough computing capability on a lot of qubits.

When will quantum computing attain a stage that enables it to overhaul right this moment’s customary supercomputers in computing energy? In response to specialists, this cut-off date, referred to as the “quantum benefit,” will arrive by the tip of the last decade, however Dayan takes a extra pessimistic view. “No one is 5 – 6 years away from reaching this benefit. The query is when will the primary participant attain computing based mostly on tens of millions of qubits. I believe within the subsequent eight years we will likely be there. And whereas different firms will get there earlier than us with factory-sized computer systems, we will do it shortly after with server-sized computer systems.”

Quantum Supply, based in 2021, has raised solely $77 million so far from buyers equivalent to Chemi Peres’ Pitango First, Dov Moran’s Grove Ventures, Lior Susan’s Eclipse, and Michael Dell’s DTC. Different buyers embody 10D Funds, Commonplace Investments, Canon Fairness and Stage VC. The corporate employs almost 70 folks in Ness Ziona, 30 of whom have PhDs in addition to 5 professors.

Revealed by Globes, Israel enterprise information – en.globes.co.il – on June 10, 2026.

© Copyright of Globes Writer Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2026.