Entrepreneur Tells Crowds Quantum is at a ‘Pivotal Moment’

Insider Brief

• Matt Cimaglia delivered two keynote speeches that addressed quantum technology’s effects on various industries.
• Cimaglia’s message is the quantum future is not on the horizon—it’s here, accessible and ready for investment.
• He is the founder of Quantum Coast Capital, a new venture capital firm, which is looking to invest in early to mid-stage U.S.-based quantum computing applications.

Inside the quantum industry, we often hear debates around overreach, security and excitement surrounding quantum technology. But it’s easy to forget how little the vast majority of the public understands what is looming on the horizon.

One entrepreneur is hoping to change that, starting with the industry he knows best: media and entertainment.

Matt Cimaglia is currently the co-founder and CEO of Alteon.io, a cloud-based SaaS platform that streamlines remote creative collaboration. He previously spent two decades heading his own creative agency, Cimaglia Productions, and worked as a broadcast journalist with NBC News in the early 2000s.

Over the course of his career, he’s witnessed the broadcast and media industry change rapidly, evolving from analog to digital, from cumbersome satellite trucks to smartphones, in relatively short order. He understands what the quantum revolution will mean.

This week, Cimaglia delivered two keynote speeches that addressed quantum technology’s effects on various industries. He articulated a clear and compelling message: the quantum future is not on the horizon—it’s here, accessible and ready for investment from leaders wanting to keep their companies ahead of the curve.

On Monday at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show, the media industry’s biggest event, held annually in Las Vegas, Cimaglia took to the stage to moderate an hour-long keynote, “Empowering Creative Collaboration: The Future of Production and Post”. In this talk, he discussed the role of quantum technology in content provenance, generative AI, encryption and video encoding.

“Quantum technology is becoming democratized in the sense that more people are gaining access to it, which will be beneficial for many industries and the various applications that can be developed from it,” Cimaglia told an audience of media experts.

He explained how Alteon.io, which won the Product of the Year and Best in Show prizes at the 2023 NAB Show, is already beginning to integrate standards set by the Post-Quantum Cryptography Alliance in order to keep ahead of the competition. Use cases in the media industry include data encryption to protect valuable digital assets, improved visual effects renderings, optimized personal content distribution and even creating new types of interactive media projects.

While most everyone else at the NAB Show was focused on AI, Cimaglia’s speech turned heads for raising awareness about a significantly more powerful new technology.

Days later, Cimaglia took to a different stage at the eMerge Americas conference, an expo spotlighting innovative technologies from around the world, in his home state of Florida. For this speech, Cimaglia focused on the need to invest in practical quantum applications and security, painted a vivid picture of a near future where quantum computing could revolutionize industries, and highlighted the need for investors to get onboard early and help spark innovation in the burgeoning quantum ecosystem.

Cimaglia spoke as the founder of Quantum Coast Capital, a new venture capital firm based in South Florida, which is looking to invest in early to mid-stage U.S.-based quantum computing applications, aligning with the U.S. government’s initiatives to advance quantum computing technology.

“We are standing at a pivotal moment in the quantum revolution, where advancements in hardware, gate fidelity, error correction and quantum volume are converging to bring us toward Quantum Advantage,” Cimaglia said onstage on Thursday. “As entrepreneurs, we have the opportunity to help shape the trajectory of this century’s Industrial Revolution.”

Cimaglia’s involvement in the quantum space is marked by his unique entrepreneurial background and strategic approach. Through his leadership at Alteon.io and Quantum Coast Capital, his goal is not only to demystify quantum technology for a wider audience, but also to lay the groundwork for practical applications across different industries.