Quantum startup names New Mexico native as CEO
Bifrost Electronics, a Colorado quantum technology manufacturer, named New Mexico native Doug Campbell as its CEO as the company prepares to release its flagship product.
In 2011, Campbell co-founded Solid Power, a battery maker spun out of the University of Colorado; that company went public on the Nasdaq in 2021. He also co-founded Roccor, a space component supplier that Redwire Space acquired in 2020.
"I've spent my career taking deep tech startups out of university labs and into production at scale," Campbell said in a statement. "The Bifrost team has built something the quantum industry genuinely needs, and I'm glad to be joining at this inflection point."
The Heimdall Amplifier, the company's flagship product, will hit commercial markets in the second half of this year. The device amplifies weak signals from qubits — the basic units of information in a quantum computer.
The amplification helps process those signals. The amplifier, which must be kept at cryogenic temperatures, is built to replace legacy hardware and solve what the company calls one of the most persistent problems in quantum computing: reading qubit signals from a dilution refrigerator without introducing noise, heat or magnetic interference.
"Bifrost is at the stage I find most compelling — the technology has been proven in the lab, the team is exceptional, and the job now is building the operational and commercial discipline to get the Heimdall Amplifier into customers' hands," Campbell said.
Bifrost, based in Arvada, Colorado, was spun out of research at the Colorado School of Mines. The company said it has raised $5.5 million from Caruso Ventures, a Colorado venture capital tech investor, Range Ventures, a Colorado early-stage startup fund and others.
The company is part of the Elevate Quantum Tech Hub, a designation from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration. The hub is a consortium of 120 organizations in New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming.
Campbell is a philanthropist; he created the first endowed department at the University of New Mexico's College of Engineering through the largest gift in school history. He has also made major gifts to UNM athletics, the Montezuma Ball, the Albuquerque Sign Language Academy and others.
Jessi Olsen, CEO of Elevate Quantum, said bringing Campbell on to lead the Bifrost team "is a huge win for the quantum ecosystem."
Campbell's "proven track record of scaling breakthrough hardware and navigating complex commercialization makes him uniquely suited to drive Bifrost forward," Olsen said. "His leadership will be instrumental in bridging advanced materials and quantum capabilities to meet the rapidly growing demands of next-generation quantum infrastructure."
Justin Horwath covers tech and energy for the Journal. You can reach him at jhorwath@abqjournal.com .
