$25.5m · Seed · Deeptech · Zurich, Switzerland
ZuriQ's native 3×3 trapped-ion qubit array, demonstrated with ETH Zürich. Image: ZuriQ, via the official funding announcement.
ZuriQ, a Zurich-based quantum computing company spun out of ETH Zürich, has raised $25.5m in Seed funding led by Quantonation, with participation from FORWARD.one, Extantia Capital, Firgun Ventures and all previous investors. The company says the capital will fund hiring, research and development, and expanded chip fabrication as it works to increase the number of qubits its processors can support.
A geometry-first bet on trapped-ion scale
Most trapped-ion quantum computers arrange ions in one-dimensional chains, then connect those chains through junctions. ZuriQ is taking a different route: its Penning micro-traps combine electric and static magnetic fields to create a processor architecture that is natively two-dimensional. The company says ions can move and be reconfigured without the junctions that constrain conventional layouts, increasing connectivity while opening a path to more qubits on one chip.
The immediate evidence is still a research-scale machine. ZuriQ says it developed a working 3×3 demonstrator in 18 months, with nine individually controlled ions in collaboration with ETH Zürich. Its chips were fabricated with Infineon using established semiconductor processes. That manufacturing link matters commercially: quantum hardware does not scale through architecture alone. A design must also be reproducible in a process that can support larger chips, more devices and repeated iterations without turning each processor into a bespoke laboratory build.
The round therefore finances a transition rather than a finished product. ZuriQ says its next target is to move from nine controlled ions towards hundreds of qubits on a chip. The technical test is whether the architecture can preserve control, connectivity and performance as the array grows; the business test is whether the Infineon manufacturing route can make those improvements repeatable enough for industrial customers.
From ETH spinout to a larger hardware programme
ZuriQ was spun out of Professor Jonathan Home's laboratory at ETH Zürich by Pavel Hrmo, Tobias Sägesser and Shreyans Jain. The company says it has grown from four people at its 2025 pre-seed round to eighteen, recruiting from quantum and photonics groups including IonQ, Xanadu and Hamamatsu. The new Seed round follows $4.2m raised in 2025.
Quantonation's investment thesis is that important quantum-computing architectures are not yet settled. For ZuriQ, that makes geometry the product bet: if a native 2D layout can add qubits without importing the junction complexity of one-dimensional designs, the company may have a more scalable trapped-ion platform. The funding buys the team time and fabrication capacity to turn that claim into larger working processors; the milestone to watch is demonstrated scale, not the theoretical capacity of the layout.
Explore this theme
What it takes to build a quantum unicorn in Europe — Jan Goetz & IQM Quantum Computers, partner-authored article hosted on EUVC · 20 October 2026. The piece explains why manufacturing capacity, system deployments and patient capital shape quantum-hardware companies; it is a useful comparison for ZuriQ's move from laboratory demonstrator to an industrial processor programme. Added 20 October 2026.
