Quantum Computing Startup ZuriQ Raises $4.2M

ZuriQ, a spinout of ETH Zurich developing trapped ion quantum computing, has raised $4.2 million to commercialize its proprietary architecture that addresses issues of scaling. The seed funding round was led by Founderful with participation from SquareOne, First Momentum Ventures, OnSight Ventures, and QAI Ventures.

(From left) ZuriQ founders Shreyans Jain, Tobias Saegesser, and Pavel Hrmo. Courtesy of Daniel Kunz.

ZuriQ’s technology changes how ions are trapped, moving from purely electric fields to a combination of electric and magnetic fields. This allows ions to move in all spatial directions like an airplane, while competitor ions move more like cars driving along roads and through junctions. As the number of ions grows, bottlenecks in information flow form on the trap chip, just like when too many cars cause traffic jams in busy city centers. The freedom to move the ions in the ZuriQ approach avoids such bottlenecks and allows greater potential for scaling.