The Innovation Crossroads program accepts between four and six PhD founders from all over the US every year into their Department of Energy funded accelerator program. This year, Quantum Lock was accepted into cohort 4 of this prestigious program where we are receiving ~$500k in non-dilutive grant funding and resources/expertise from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) over the next 2 years. There were over 800 applications submitted and the selection process took almost a year with the initial application and 2 rounds of presentations/interviews judged by a panel of distinguished investors, researchers, and representatives from the Department of Energy and Tennessee Valley Association.
As part of this accelerator program, we will be working closely with the cybersecurity institute at Oak Ridge National Laboratory with principal investigator, Peter Fuhr. Our goals include hardware and software development, an alpha with an ORNL lock system, cybersecurity testing/cyber resilence, a pilot with potential partner or customers, and product development in future markets including manufacturing facilities through the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at ORNL.