Swiss quantum hardware startup ZuriQ has raised $4.2 million in a seed funding round.

The round was led by Founderful, with participation from SquareOne, First Momentum Ventures, OnSight Ventures, and QAI Ventures.

Founded in 2024 by Dr. Pavel Hrmo, Tobias Sägesser, and Dr. Shreyans Jain, the company was spun out of ETH Zurich University and is developing technology to overcome the scaling challenges associated with trapped-ion quantum computers.

By using a micro-fabricated chip with many electrodes that hold static voltages embedded in a large and homogenous static magnetic field, ZuriQ is changing how ions are trapped. The company’s approach allows ions to move in all spatial directions, thus reducing bottlenecks in information flow that form on the trap chip.

ZuriQ also claims that unlike other quantum computing companies currently operating in the market, it has “redesigned the fundamental computational building block from the ground up,” enabling a much steeper rate of growth in computing power.

The company said it is on track to demonstrate its first prototype later this year, which will have dozens of ions in a reconfigurable 2-d grid.

The space for few-qubit devices that act as toy models is already saturated," said Pavel Hrmo, CEO of ZuriQ. "Devices with 20-40 qubits won't drive large profits. We need to focus on long-term scalability and demonstrate that our platform can grow the number of ions in two dimensions faster than our competitors."

ZuriQ said its ultimate aim is to become the “flagship provider of quantum computing worldwide,” offering both direct system sales and cloud access.