Mountain West Quantum & Photonics

Interested early-stage quantum startups can apply to pitch by submitting the completed application form online.  Any startup with a focus on Quantum solutions that has raised less than $10M in funding is eligible to apply or those in pre-seed or seed level funding stage.

The contest is open to the public, participants must be 18 years of age or older. Participants authorize the Competition organizers to contact them via email. Late application submissions will not be accepted and the application deadline will not be extended.

A participating applicant/startup who makes it to the Pitch competition stage must take part in the Pitch in order to be eligible to receive any money or prize award. Scores rendered by the judges will not be disclosed to the Competition participants, and the judges’ decisions are final and are not subject to review.

Applications will be evaluated on their uniqueness, feasibility, financial viability, and market desirability.  Ten finalists (5 for Quantum and 5 for Photonics) will be selected who will pitch live at the in-person event on October 8, 2025. The deadline to submit a pitch for consideration is August 30, 2025.

The winner of the pitch competition will receive a potential $100,000 investment from Qubits Ventures, subject to terms and conditions.

SVIYP applies a very detailed investor readiness assessment process to the start-ups that apply to the Montana Photonics and Quantum pitch event. This process runs through a due diligence-level examination of all critical aspects of a start-up's development status and operations. The goal is to present a cohort of companies that are all investment-ready.

The individual steps are:

• Application to the event through the Qubits website
• Initial assessment by SVIYP of each company's current state of investor readiness
• Qualified acceptance or rejection of each company after the initial assessment
• Discussion with qualified accepted companies to review areas of improvement
• Iterative process to improve each company's pitch deck
• Practice pitching with SVIYP staff
• Final selection of ten companies for inclusion in the pitch event

It is expected that the process will take up to two months per company from application to final approval. A last run-through will be conducted one to two weeks prior to the event on October 8th.