Welcome Johannes Galatsanos, Co-Founder & CEO at Diffraqtion on this episode of 🔥The Lantern 🔥
Diffraqtion is building the world’s first quantum camera, a device that sees further and processes visual information dramatically faster than any conventional camera and GPU stack.
Their first application is a network of small satellites in low Earth orbit delivering Earth and space intelligence at a fraction of the cost of today’s systems. The same camera can also be deployed in drones, cars, robots, and factories.
🔍 What is this technology and where does it originate? 🔎
This team have built a quantum camera with a familiar form factor: a lens, a sensor, and a body small enough to fit on a satellite the size of a small suitcase. Underneath, the physics is completely different.
Diffraqtion is an MIT and University of Maryland spinout, built on patented quantum imaging IP. Johannes’ co-founder, Christine Yi-Ting Wang (Harvard PhD) leads their optics research.
The team closed a $4.2M Pre-Seed fundrasie in January led by QDNL Participations, with participation from milemark•capital, Aether VC, ADIN, and Offline Ventures, plus a non-dilutive DARPA SBIR Direct-to-Phase 2 contract.
🚀 What’s ahead for Diffraqtion in 2026? 🚀
A first pilot demo of their quantum camera inside one of the largest telescopes in the United States, a three-meter ground-based system.
These DARPA and NASA contracts will push the tech to “Technical Red List” Level 6, which is essentially deployment ready.
From there, the team is building a small network of cameras across larger telescopes to deliver ground-based intelligence before the first satellite launches next year
🤔 What has Johannes learned building in Deep Tech? 🤔
Talent is the bottleneck.
To pull from quantum, photonics, AI, and aerospace at the same time, Johannes made an active decision to build in public.
He’s given 30 to 40 talks across the world to spread their mission and help build momentum with customers and talented builders who want to join them on their journey.
🤝 How can we help Diffraqtion? 🤝
Johannes and his team are looking to build tighter connection to MIT & Harvard and gather more state & local government support.
They strive to mass manufacture their camera here in Boston, and are looking for intros to operators who want to build something genuinely hard. There is real talent in this region that wants to put things in space.
Help them stay! Go check out Diffraqtion.
The Lantern is brought to you by MGMT Boston, Rise73 & Invest Northern Ireland – Americas this month