QLM founder Xiao Ai, with senior scientist Dr. James Titchener, putting the QLM Quantum Gas Camera through its paces

QLM Technology started as an idea in the head of our Chief Technical Officer, Xiao Ai, as he carried out postgraduate research into single photon Lidar gas detection at the University of Bristol. Aware of the ever-growing need to comprehensively understand the extent of emissions of methane and other key greenhouse gases, he realised that his research, in which a Lidar beam simultaneously probed both the shape and the concentration of plumes of methane, could help enable organisations worldwide to achieve Net Zero through mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions.

QTEC, the university’s Quantum Technology Enterprise Centre, agreed. In 2017, they helped Xiao form QLM Technology to explore the commercialisation of his research, assigning him a business mentor in the form of Dr Murray Reed, a photonics industry veteran with thirty years of experience commercialising cutting-edge technology in Silicon Valley. Murray liked what he saw enough to go into business with Xiao, and he became CEO of QLM in June 2019.

Since then, QLM has been proud to collaborate with backers in the industrial, government and private sectors, notably Innovate UK who have been the major backer of the SPLICE project. We have also benefitted from the expertise of the National Physical Laboratory across a number of projects.

QLM was created out the desire to create opportunities for organisations to achieve Net Zero, and is the only solution that enables accurate detection, localisation and quantification of your greenhouse gas emissions in an affordable, scalable way.