ZuriQ raises $4.2m to break quantum computing scaling barrier

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Trap sketch with ion array. Image: ZuriQ

Trapped ions have been one of the most powerful approaches in quantum computing, demonstrating world-record performance, long coherence times and long-range connectivity.

However, these systems face a fundamental challenge: they struggle to dramatically scale up the number of physical qubits, relying on one-dimensional chains with hard physical limitations that prevent scaling. Maybe that’s about to change.

ZuriQ has announced it has raised $4.2m to commercialize a new architecture that could break through this scaling barrier.

Where traditional approaches connect one-dimensional trap regions into two-dimensional grids, ZuriQ has taken a different approach. The company’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 are more like cars driving along roads and through junctions. As the number of ions grows, just like too many cars creating traffic jams in busy city centres, bottlenecks in information flow will form on the trap chip. The freedom to move the ions in the ZuriQ approach is the key step to unlock the performance of these systems at scale. 

The technology emerged from the ETH labs of Prof. Home, where founders Pavel Hrmo, Tobias Sägesser, and Shreyans Jain came together working on a project. After setting out to rethink ion trapping, the trio built a novel setup housing a microfabricated trap chip in a large superconducting magnet. Before capturing their first ion, the team spent months testing hundreds of parts where a single failure could have prevented the setup from working. Then, when they first turned on the device, they were met with nothing – the system was silent with no hint as to what might have malfunctioned.

ZuriQ has redesigned the fundamental computational building block from the ground up, enabling a much steeper rate of growth in computing power. Importantly, the re-design maintains compatibility with the proven control techniques developed by the trapped-ion academic community. The company is on track to demonstrate its first prototype late this year that 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 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.”

Looking ahead, ZuriQ is building toward the thousands of qubits required for industrially useful quantum computing. The company aims to become the flagship provider of quantum computing worldwide, offering both direct system sales and cloud access. The systems will be continuously upgraded as the hardware matures, with particular focus on applications requiring high data privacy, such as financial portfolio optimization or drug design.

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

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Jim Cornall is editor of Deeptech Digest and publisher at Ayr Coastal Media. He is an award-winning writer, editor, photographer, broadcaster, designer and author. Contact Jim here.