ZuriQ

ZuriQ is a quantum hardware company spun out of ETH Zurich in the spring of 2024, focusing on a significant hurdle in quantum computing: scalability. The company was founded by CEO Pavel Hrmo, CTO Tobias Sägesser, and CSO Shreyans Jain, a team that came together in the ETH labs of Professor Jonathan Home. Their journey began with a high-risk project to rethink ion trapping, culminating in a novel setup with a microfabricated trap chip in a large superconducting magnet, with initial findings published in Nature.

The firm is tackling the scaling limitations of trapped-ion quantum computers. While trapped ions are recognized for high performance, long coherence times, and connectivity, current systems struggle to scale beyond a one-dimensional chain of qubits. ZuriQ’s core technology introduces a new architecture that combines electric and magnetic fields to trap ions. This allows the qubits—individual trapped atomic ions—to move freely in three dimensions, arranged in reconfigurable 2D lattices, much like an airplane, rather than being confined to linear paths like cars on a road. This freedom of movement is engineered to prevent the information flow bottlenecks that occur as the number of ions increases, thus enabling a path towards thousands of qubits.

In January 2025, ZuriQ secured $4.2 million in a seed funding round led by Founderful, with participation from SquareOne, First Momentum Ventures, OnSight Ventures, and QAI Ventures. This capital is aimed at commercializing their architecture and expanding operations. The company is on track to demonstrate its first prototype with dozens of ions in a reconfigurable 2D grid. The long-term business model targets both direct system sales and cloud access to its quantum computers. ZuriQ aims to serve industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemistry, and logistics, with a particular focus on applications requiring high data privacy, like financial portfolio optimization and drug design.

Keywords: quantum computing, trapped-ion, scalability, qubits, quantum hardware, ETH Zurich spin-off, Penning ion trap, quantum architecture, 2D ion lattices, quantum scalability, Pavel Hrmo, Tobias Sägesser, Shreyans Jain, Founderful, quantum machine, quantum cloud access, financial modeling, drug discovery, quantum chemistry, reconfigurable qubits