HUNTSVILLE, Ala., and CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Davidson is joining The Company Lab’s newly launched CO.LAB Q as its Founding Defense Track Sponsor, bringing defense mission expertise, technical resources and access to advanced quantum computing capabilities to a new effort designed to move promising quantum technologies from the lab toward real-world applications.
CO.LAB Q is a 12-month commercialization studio for quantum startups and research teams. Launching in November, the program will connect participating companies with specialized infrastructure, technical expertise, potential customers, pilot opportunities and pathways to capital as they work to turn scientific and technical advances into commercially viable solutions.
As Founding Defense Track Sponsor, Davidson will help shape the program’s national security focus and serve as a technical resource and guiding voice for companies exploring defense applications.
The effort will be supported through Davidson Labs, the company’s internal innovation engine focused on advancing research and development and accelerating promising technologies toward mission-relevant applications, will support the effort. Through Davidson Labs, participating companies will have opportunities to access Davidson’s quantum laboratory while drawing on the company’s decades of experience supporting complex national security missions.
“For emerging technology companies, access to advanced computing resources is only part of the challenge,” said Nathan Klose, Davidson Labs VP.
Moving a promising technology into the defense environment demands an understanding of mission and customer requirements, acquisition and contracting, cybersecurity, data rights, and the pathways available to demonstrate and transition new capabilities.
“Davidson’s support and ability to prime contracts for the start-ups within CO.LAB Q will help us address consequential defense problems together,” said Klose.
Davidson’s participation builds on the company’s growing investment in applied quantum computing and its focus on moving the technology beyond theoretical potential toward measurable mission impact.
Davidson worked with partner D-Wave in 2025 to install an Advantage2™ annealing quantum computer at its Huntsville headquarters, establishing an on-premises environment where its engineers can develop, test and benchmark quantum and hybrid approaches against complex optimization problems. Davidson has since expanded its quantum research, partnerships and technical ecosystem around applications relevant to national security.
CO.LAB Q creates another pathway for that work — this time, by connecting Davidson with startups and research teams developing technologies across quantum computing and algorithms, networking and communications, cybersecurity, sensing and imaging, enabling hardware, and other emerging areas.
Rather than following a standardized accelerator curriculum, CO.LAB Q will develop individualized commercialization roadmaps based on each participant’s technology, market readiness and goals. Companies will work toward evidence such as validated customer problems, credible use cases, proofs of concept, and pilot opportunities.
The program brings together partners representing different parts of the quantum ecosystem. Quantinuum will serve as Founding Compute Partner; the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga as Founding Academic Partner; Middle Tennessee Electric as Founding Utility Partner; EPB Quantum as Quantum Network Partner; and Davidson as Founding Defense Track Sponsor.
The broader regional ecosystem includes organizations across research, academia, infrastructure and industry, including Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee Valley Authority, Vanderbilt University and the Chattanooga Quantum Collaborative.
For Davidson, the collaboration represents more than participation in a growing quantum ecosystem. It provides an opportunity to help emerging companies understand an especially difficult part of technology transition: how to connect a promising technical capability with a real defense need and demonstrate its value in practice.
That role closely aligns with the purpose of Davidson Labs — creating an environment to explore and mature new ideas with the mission in mind.
CO.LAB Q applications are now open on a rolling basis, with the program scheduled to begin in November.
Learn more and apply through The Company Lab here.
