Pure-play Quantum · Incubator / Accelerator · Active

Duality Quantum Accelerator

Duality is the first accelerator in the United States dedicated exclusively to quantum startups, launched in April 2021 by the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of…

Stage Pre-Seed → Seed
Ticket $50k (Non-dilutif)
Quantum focus Quantum Computing HW, Quantum Computing SW
Geography United States

Investment thesis

Duality is the first accelerator in the United States dedicated exclusively to quantum startups, launched in April 2021 by the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Chicago and the Chicago Quantum Exchange, with founding partners Argonne National Laboratory, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and P33. The 12-month program delivers business training from Chicago Booth, technical mentorship from national-lab scientists, and up to US$50K in non-dilutive funding per company. In July 2025, Duality integrated into Alchemist Chicago, extending its reach across the deep-tech stack while keeping a pure-play quantum focus. Alumni have collectively raised over $20M downstream, with notable exits including Super.tech's acquisition by ColdQuanta (now Infleqtion). Duality is the anchor hybrid accelerator of the U.S. midwest quantum corridor.

Anti-thesis

The patterns that trigger a fast no with this fund.

  1. No non-US legal entities: applicants must be an established US legal entity at the time of entry, foreign-domiciled startups (even with US founders) are rejected
  2. No part-time founders: the CEO must work full-time on the startup, ruling out academic moonlighters or founders keeping a postdoc or faculty role
  3. No remote-only participation: at least one founder must physically reside in Chicago through main programming, distributed teams unwilling to relocate are screened out
  4. No later-stage companies: program is capped at startups that have not raised more than $1M in private funding at entry, excluding seed+ and Series A ventures
  5. No non-quantum or quantum-adjacent plays: Duality is an explicit quantum accelerator backed by Chicago Quantum Exchange, Argonne and UIUC, AI, classical HPC or quantum-flavored deep tech without a genuine quantum core do not qualify

Notable quantum portfolio

Full portfolio →
qBraidSuper.tech (acquired by ColdQuanta/Infleqtion)Great Lakes Crystal Technologies

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