The archive · Space, Robots, Defence · Technical decision · 2024–2026
ZuriQ's 2D trapped-ion bet: $25.5M to make quantum scaling a geometry problem
ETH Zürich spinout ZuriQ bets Penning micro-traps arranged in two dimensions can out-scale IonQ-style 1D chains; $29.7M raised so far.
ZuriQ
What the business is
A Zürich quantum-computing startup, spun out of ETH Zürich, building trapped-ion processors whose Penning micro-traps arrange ions in two-dimensional arrays fabricated with manufacturing partner Infineon.
Starting capital：A $4.2M pre-seed in 2025 plus a $25.5M seed announced 2026-07-28 led by Quantonation, with Forward.one, Extantia and Firgun Ventures — about $29.7M total.
How it started
ZuriQ was founded in 2024 as a spin-out of Professor Jonathan Home's ETH Zürich laboratory by Dr Pavel Hrmo, Dr Tobias Sägesser and Dr Shreyans Jain. The founders spent longer in the lab to develop Penning micro-traps in which a static magnetic field replaces the oscillating fields of conventional designs, letting ions move without junctions — the property they bet would make scaling inherently easier.
What happened
ZuriQ raised a $4.2M pre-seed in 2025, then built a working demonstrator in collaboration with ETH Zürich within about 18 months: a 3×3 array of nine individually controlled ions, which the company calls the largest two-dimensional array of its kind demonstrated to date. The chips were fabricated with Infineon to show the design works with established semiconductor processes, and the team grew from four to eighteen people, hiring from IonQ, Xanadu and Hamamatsu.
How it ended up
On 28 July 2026 ZuriQ announced a $25.5M seed led by Quantonation, bringing total funding to about $29.7M. The capital is earmarked for hiring, research and scaling chip fabrication toward hundreds of qubits on a single chip, with thousands required for industrially useful quantum computing still the long-term target.
Background
ZuriQ is a Zürich quantum-computing startup spun out of ETH Zürich in 2024 by Dr Pavel Hrmo, Dr Tobias Sägesser and Dr Shreyans Jain, three researchers from Professor Jonathan Home's laboratory. Its bet is architectural: most trapped-ion quantum computers arrange ions in one-dimensional chains stitched together with junctions, while ZuriQ's Penning micro-traps are natively two-dimensional.
Using a static magnetic field instead of the oscillating fields of conventional designs, ZuriQ's ions can move freely in any direction. The company argues this turns scaling into a geometry problem: ions held in a line grow one at a time, while ions held in two dimensions grow with the area of the chip — the difference between tens of ions and many thousands.
In about 18 months ZuriQ and ETH Zürich built a working demonstrator of a 3×3 array of nine individually controlled ions, which the company says is the largest two-dimensional array of its kind demonstrated to date. The chips were fabricated with manufacturing partner Infineon to prove the design works with established industrial processes.
ZuriQ raised a $4.2M pre-seed in 2025 and a $25.5M seed led by Quantonation on 28 July 2026, bringing total funding to about $29.7M. The company has grown from four to eighteen employees, hiring from IonQ, Xanadu and Hamamatsu, and will use the capital to scale chip fabrication toward hundreds of qubits per chip.
What has to be true
- The one-dimensional chain was a legacy blueprint: industry leaders IonQ and Quantinuum built on it, and ZuriQ saw junction complexity becoming the scaling bottleneck.
- Penning micro-traps with a static magnetic field let ions move in any direction, removing the junction constraint entirely and making the array native to the chip's area.
- Infineon fabrication proved manufacturability early, addressing the most common objection to lab-born quantum architectures.
- Quantonation's conviction that the quantum race is not decided gave a small Swiss spin-out patient capital to compete on physics rather than on early revenue.
What can be applied
Against far-ahead leaders, a startup can still compete on architecture: ZuriQ chose a different geometry and a manufacturing partner, betting scalability will beat incumbents' head start.
Aftermath
As of 28 July 2026, ZuriQ is an early-stage, building-phase quantum company: it announced a $25.5M seed led by Quantonation that day, taking total funding to about $29.7M after a $4.2M pre-seed in 2025. It has demonstrated a 3×3 array of nine individually controlled ions built with ETH Zürich, fabricates chips with Infineon, and has grown from four to eighteen employees with hires from IonQ, Xanadu and Hamamatsu. Its next milestone is hundreds of qubits on one chip; thousands needed for industrially useful computing remain the long-term goal, with IonQ and Quantinuum far ahead commercially.
Sources
- Zürich-based ZuriQ raises €22.4 million to scale its 2D trapped-ion quantum processors
- ETH Zürich spin-out ZuriQ raises $25.5M, taking on IonQ and Quantinuum's 1D design
- ZuriQ Raises $25.5 Million to Scale Two-Dimensional Trapped-Ion Quantum Processors
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