Startup removes coding barriers to quantum computing for 20,000 users

Quantum computers can model new molecules and accelerate AI algorithms. But getting access to them has meant weeks of technical setup — if you could access them at all.

qBraid, a startup founded by Kanav Setia and Jason Necaise, is changing that equation. Their cloud-based platform connects users to quantum devices from IBM, Microsoft, and Nvidia without requiring deep technical knowledge. The pitch is simple: go from zero quantum experience to running your first program in under 10 minutes.

From Weeks to Minutes

Setia and Necaise met interning at IBM, where Setia had just taken one of the first applied quantum computing classes at Dartmouth. He watched students spend weeks wrestling with software setup before they could write a single line of quantum code. "Why don't we build a software sandbox in the cloud and give people an easy programming setup out of the box?" he recalls thinking. "Connection with the hardware would already be done."

Since launching in 2020, qBraid has onboarded over 20,000 people across more than 120 countries. The platform pre-installs the necessary software, handles version control, and lets users run quantum programs across different devices without managing infrastructure themselves.

What's striking is who's using it. Setia notes that a significant portion of qBraid's users are from developing countries, many running quantum applications directly from their phones. They're building in fields like drug discovery, finance, and AI — not waiting for the perfect lab setup.

The company has now built qBraid-OS, its own quantum operating system, which four leading quantum hardware companies are already using. Setia describes it as becoming "the operating system for quantum computers" — letting hardware makers focus on building better machines while qBraid handles the software layer that makes them accessible.

Access as Infrastructure

The barrier wasn't technical complexity alone. It was gatekeeping. Quantum computers existed, but reaching them required institutional access, specialized knowledge, or both. qBraid flipped that: make the platform so frictionless that someone with curiosity but no quantum background can experiment immediately.

That democratization matters because the quantum field needs people. Right now, most quantum talent comes from academic or corporate research backgrounds. But if you can onboard 20,000 users globally — including people in countries without major quantum research labs — you're building a workforce that wouldn't otherwise exist.

As quantum hardware continues improving, the bottleneck is shifting from "Can we build these machines?" to "Who knows how to use them?" qBraid is betting that removing friction from the entry point solves both problems at once.