ZuriQ raises USD $25.5 million to scale quantum chips

ZuriQ has raised USD $25.5 million in seed funding in a round led by Quantonation.

The Swiss quantum computing start-up will use the money to expand its team, step up research and development, and scale chip fabrication as it works to increase the number of qubits supported on a single chip.

Spun out of ETH Zürich, ZuriQ is developing trapped-ion quantum processors based on a two-dimensional architecture rather than the one-dimensional designs widely used across the sector. Most existing trapped-ion systems rely on ion chains connected through junction structures first proposed more than two decades ago.

Its approach uses Penning micro-traps and a static magnetic field, allowing ions to move in any direction without the junctions used in conventional systems. The design is intended to support larger chip layouts and more flexible connections between ions.

The funding follows a USD $4.2 million pre-seed round in 2025. Other investors in the seed round included Forward.one, Extantia, Firgun Ventures and backers from the earlier financing.

Chip design

In 18 months, ZuriQ built a working demonstrator of its architecture. The system consists of a 3x3 array of nine individually controlled ions, which it described as the largest two-dimensional array of its kind demonstrated so far.

The demonstrator was developed with researchers at ETH Zürich. The chips were fabricated with manufacturing partner Infineon, showing the design can be produced using established industrial processes.

ZuriQ is now focused on increasing the number of ions on a chip, aiming to move towards systems with hundreds of qubits. Its headcount has risen from four to 18 since the last investment round.

The company has also hired staff with backgrounds from quantum and photonics groups including IonQ, Xanadu and Hamamatsu.

Professor Jonathan Home, Scientific Adviser at ZuriQ and Professor at ETH Zürich, outlined the rationale behind the design. "What makes this approach powerful is geometry. Hold ions in a line and the count grows one at a time; hold them in two dimensions, and it grows with the area of the chip - on a standard chip, that is the difference between tens of ions and many thousands. Just as important, the ions can be moved freely in three dimensions, so they can be connected together far more flexibly, and that connectivity is what ultimately makes a quantum computer more capable. Reaching the scale and connectivity that real applications will need has been the central challenge for the whole field," Home said.

Scaling push

The financing comes as quantum hardware companies continue to test different technical paths to scale machines beyond small experimental systems. Trapped-ion computing has drawn sustained interest because of its qubit quality, but companies in the field still face the challenge of expanding device size while maintaining control and connectivity.

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder Dr Pavel Hrmo said ZuriQ spent longer developing its architecture in the laboratory to avoid the limitations of older layouts. "The trapped-ion companies that started the race began with one-dimensional designs that were useful stepping-stones, but the real challenge is whether they can successfully pivot to two dimensions as they attempt to scale. We spent longer in the lab, and that time allowed us to identify an alternative route that is inherently easier to scale. Our architecture is two-dimensional from the ground up, so the number of qubits we can place on a chip will grow far more readily than in systems built on a legacy blueprint. This funding lets us turn our technical momentum into commercial scale with more people, more research, and an accelerated path to industrial applications," Hrmo said.

Quantonation framed the investment as a bet on unresolved questions in quantum hardware. "A common misconception is that the quantum race is already decided, but that is far from reality. ZuriQ is demonstrating that there remain significant and transformational physics breakthroughs still to be made in quantum architectures. The scientific caliber of the team is world-class, which is why ZuriQ has been phenomenally successful in attracting global talent to join them and build 2D-native quantum computers where trapped-ion qubits finally have the freedom to move and connect," said Christophe Jurczak, Founding Partner at Quantonation.