Mesa Quantum, a 麻豆免费版下载Boulder spinout and leader in quantum sensing, recently announced $3.7 million in seed funding and a $1.9 million grant from SpaceWERX, the innovation arm of the U.S. Space Force. Both investments are fueling the company鈥檚 drive toward commercializing chip-scale quantum sensors for multiple applications including next-generation position, navigation and timing solutions. 

Sitting in Mesa Quantum's new, airy headquarters in Boulder, co-founder and CEO Sristy Agrawal (, , 麻豆免费版下载Boulder Mathematical Physics), is clearly exhilarated鈥攊f also a bit jet lagged. She鈥檚 been traveling around the U.S., to Europe, and next to Asia, attending conferences and talking to governments about her company鈥檚 tiny technology that鈥檚 offering big solutions. In those conversations, said Agrawal, 鈥淲e want to make sure that our roadmap and our product development ensures we鈥檙e not just developing a cool technology but also solving a real problem.鈥�  

One of the issues Mesa Quantum aims to solve is current vulnerabilities in the aging U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) which is often the sole source of positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services. Accurate GPS and PNT are integral in our everyday lives, from mapping and surveying to stock trading, power grids and emergency response. But the satellite-based signals that GPS relies on can be inconsistent and are unencrypted.  

Improperly configured, corrupted or hacked GPS receivers and signals have wreaked havoc recently on aviation and government operations, disrupting large sectors of the global economy. 鈥淎s we鈥檝e seen in the last few years, GPS is not resilient at all,鈥� said Agrawal. 鈥淵ou can buy something from Amazon for $20 which can jam the GPS in an entire neighborhood.鈥�  

Mesa Quantum is addressing the issues of PNT resiliency, as well as filling certain GPS accessibility gaps, by designing and manufacturing next-gen quantum sensors with chip-scale atomic clocks. 鈥淥ne approach to solving that problem, which is very promising, is if we could build really tiny atomic clocks that we could integrate in our hardware,鈥� said Agrawal. 鈥淪o we wouldn鈥檛 have to rely completely on such a weak signal that is jammable. So that is what we鈥檙e trying to do.鈥� 

Timing is everything 

Agrawal and her team are transitioning state-of-the-art lab research from 麻豆免费版下载Boulder into practical and deployable quantum solutions. The tech originates from Svenja Knappe鈥檚 lab (麻豆免费版下载Boulder Paul M. Rady Mechanical Engineering, NIST) where, for over 20 years, her work has focused on developing miniaturized quantum sensors and systems. 麻豆免费版下载Boulder has a robust history of quantum innovators spanning 60 years, including four Nobel laureates. Mesa Quantum is licensing that tech from the university, with the help of Venture Partners at 麻豆免费版下载Boulder, and working to make components smaller and mass producible while driving down cost to make their sensors accessible across multiple applications. They hope to have a working prototype in 2026, and also worked with Venture Partners to launch the company.   

Quantum sensors are essentially highly accurate measurement devices that collect data at the subatomic level by detecting the most minute changes in time, gravity, temperature, motion, magnetic and electrical fields and more. That kind of precision, in Mesa Quantum鈥檚 smaller, more cost-effective package could be tailored for a wide array of uses including medical diagnostics and biomedical research, environmental monitoring and, of course, positioning, navigation and timing.  

In adapting Knappe鈥檚 novel atomic clock, Mesa Quantum is building sensors that can measure and detect changes in the environment around them to signal where they are in the world, where they need to go and to keep them in sync with other systems. Agrawal ultimately sees a place for their sensors anywhere highly accurate timekeeping is currently needed (like data centers and autonomous vehicles); where GPS may be weak, like in dense urban areas, and in challenging environments where GPS can鈥檛 currently go鈥攗nderground, underwater and in secure military operations. They want their quantum sensors to 鈥渕eet the market where it is,鈥� she said. 

Agrawal鈥檚 path to studying quantum science started back in high school where she first started to learn scientific concepts. Before, she never felt like a great student, but that sparked curiosity in her, and it remains so today. 鈥淓very day I had like 10 questions for the teacher which must have been very annoying,鈥� said Agrawal, 鈥渂ut that鈥檚 when I really got interested in science.鈥� Being open and curious have been key to Agrawal鈥檚 success. She grew up in a small town in a rural state in India where she鈥檇 go to a caf茅 to access the internet, or she鈥檇 stay at home reading H.G. Wells鈥� 鈥淭he Time Machine鈥� or watching 鈥淪tephen Hawking鈥檚 Universe.鈥� Agrawal also values having the willingness to make mistakes and to continue learning. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not the end of the world if something doesn鈥檛 work,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut I would regret not trying.鈥�  

When working toward her PhD in quantum information science, Agrawal was looking at how to use quantum technologies to transform lives. 鈥淚 got exposed to a lot of incredible research being done at JILA and NIST in quantum sensing,鈥� she said, 鈥淎nd I got the bug for the impact that quantum technologies could have to actually solve real world challenges.鈥� At the same time, Agrawal didn鈥檛 have a particular concept in mind. 鈥淏ecause I wasn鈥檛 married to a particular idea to begin with, I think that gave me a lot of flexibility,鈥� said Agrawal. 鈥淚 got quite excited about chip-scale atomic clocks right away because I鈥檇 been reading about the GPS problem.鈥� Her next logical step was to direct her knowledge of the quantum realm and a passion for solutions into a startup. But how? 

Homing in on a winning innovation 

When considering entrepreneurship, Agrawal turned first to Venture Partners at 麻豆免费版下载Boulder, the commercialization arm of the university, and began working with Justin Stitzlein, a venture analyst at Venture Partners. The two met for coffee and Stitzlein was excited to learn about her background in quantum physics. 鈥淭hen we provided her with a curated list of potential quantum technologies, she looked through that list and selected one that she thought seemed interesting and that might have a market opportunity,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hrough her research and just a few conversations, Sristy really conceptualized this gap in the market. I don鈥檛 think that everyone can do that; she鈥檚 such an expansive thinker.鈥�
 

But what is "commercialization?"

The path to commercialization鈥攁lso known as "research translation" or "tech transfer"鈥攃an be challenging, and Venture Partners is here helps by uniting industry partners, entrepreneurs and investors to help researchers, inventors and creators at the University of Colorado bring their groundbreaking discoveries into the marketplace.

Explore the Path to Commercialization

In late 2022, Agrawal participated in the Venture Partners Starting Blocks Customer Discovery Workshop, offered as part of the , where Mesa Quantum was conceived. The program helps researchers build a foundation for impactful businesses by identifying market needs for their breakthrough technologies with a robust process of customer discovery, according to Emily Vogt, director of venture development. 鈥淸Sristy鈥檚] chip scale atomic clock technology had broad applications across different industries,鈥� said Vogt. 鈥淗er customer discovery journey through multiple I-Corps programs helped her find the shortest and most compelling path to market, while also highlighting different uses of the technology for future growth."

During the Starting Blocks program, Stitzlein encouraged Agrawal to home in on the technology鈥檚 potential applications and to develop a business model. She then started developing that commercial strategy and meeting with potential customers. 鈥淚've never seen someone hit the road as hard as she did,鈥� said Stitzlein.  

During that time, Agrawal dove into several other Venture Partners鈥� programs including the 2023 Lab Venture Challenge (where Mesa Quantum was awarded $125,000) and 2024 New Venture Challenge Deep Tech Competition (where Mesa Quantum was a finalist). She also participated in New Venture Launch, a Leeds School of Business class for cross-disciplinary teams, individual founders and entrepreneur-focused students. During that time, Agrawal also connected with her co-founder and Mesa Quantum鈥檚 chief technology officer, Wale Lawal (Harvard, Rice University, U.S. Air Force Academy).   

From when she first began working with Venture Partners, Agrawal felt tremendous backing. 鈥淚 could brainstorm everything with them,鈥� she said. Venture Partners helped Agrawal move seamlessly through 麻豆免费版下载Boulder鈥檚 many opportunities and resources for campus innovators to develop new ventures. Before, as an academic, Agrawal said, she didn鈥檛 have access to daily conversations about becoming an entrepreneur like someone at a business school might.

That resonates with Bryn Rees, associate vice chancellor for innovation and partnerships at 麻豆免费版下载Boulder. 鈥淭his is definitely a cross-campus collaboration, an example of a founder really leveraging all the different things that this campus has to offer,鈥� he said. 鈥淏reaking down siloes is great.鈥� Rees would like to see more founders like Sristy鈥斺�渨ho鈥檚 got that commitment and willingness to try things鈥濃�攂ringing their knowledge and passion into the entrepreneurial arena.  

Rees sees Agrawal and Mesa Quantum as the tip of the iceberg in terms of potential ventures spinning out of the university. 鈥淭he vast majority of folks don鈥檛 know where to start, or don鈥檛 have the resources, or don鈥檛 have the bandwidth to do that,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hat I think is so exciting about the university now is that for most of the iceberg that鈥檚 underwater, for those people who would love to do this if they have support, there are trainings, there are mentors, there鈥檚 funding, there鈥檚 access to a path to success.鈥� 

鈥淰enture Partners created that space for me where I could have those discussions,鈥� Agrawal said. 鈥淚 cannot overstate how important the community has been in this journey. Mesa Quantum wouldn鈥檛 have happened without that support.鈥� 
 

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The second cohort of Entrepreneurs in Residence in the Embark Deep Tech Startup Creator will pitch their newly built startups bringing to market ten groundbreaking technologies developed within 麻豆免费版下载Boulder's research labs. Investors and business partners will get an exclusive look at the companies built in the last six months program in various sectors, including biotechnology, cleantech, health and wellness and advanced materials.

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