Firgun Ventures Invests in ZuriQ’s Scalable Trapped-Ion Quantum Architecture

Firgun Ventures’ investment in ZuriQ adds a quantum-hardware company to its European portfolio

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, July 28, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Firgun Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on early growth-stage quantum technology scale-ups, today announced its participation in a 20.6M Swiss Francs ($25.5M USD) seed round in ZuriQ, an ETH Zurich spin-out developing a trapped-ion architecture based on Penning micro- traps. Firgun joins lead investor Quantonation along with Forward.one and Extantia in the round. Zuriq marks their sixth quantum investment.

ZuriQ’s technology uses static electric and magnetic fields to allow ions to be moved and reconfigured beyond the one-dimensional chains used in conventional trapped ion systems, which addresses a central scaling challenge for the modality.

Trapped-ion systems have demonstrated strong performance in small-scale quantum processors. However, scaling them to larger systems, important for solving real-world problems, is difficult as they typically rely on one-dimensional ion chains that can create transport, density, heating, and control challenges as systems grow. ZuriQ is pursuing a Penning micro-trap architecture that is designed to confine and move ions using static electric and magnetic fields. This allows for reconfigurable ion placement above a chip and a more flexible trapped ion-processor.

ZuriQ was founded by Dr. Pavel Hrmo (CEO), Dr. Tobias Sägesser (CTO), Dr. Shreyans Jain (CSO), and Prof. Jonathan Home (Scientific Advisor). The company’s technical foundation builds on a 2024 Nature paper, in which ZuriQ’s founders and collaborators demonstrated a micro-fabricated Penning ion trap, full quantum control of a single ion, and arbitrary ion transport in the trapping plane above the chip. Their latest system has now demonstrated the first native 3x3 array of qubits, paving the way for accelerated qubit count scalability.

“ZuriQ brings together a world-class leadership team with stellar credentials and experience in quantum technology,” said Zeynep Korutürk, co-founding partner of Firgun Ventures. “We are excited to work with Dr. Hrmo and his team to move the company to the next level and to define the future of quantum computing.”

The investment speaks to Firgun’s focus on quantum companies moving from scientific proof points toward scalable commercial hardware and infrastructure. Firgun describes itself as a VC firm investing in Series A/B quantum scale-ups across quantum computing, communications, cryptography, sensing, and imaging. ZuriQ adds a European trapped-ion hardware company to that portfolio, with a thesis centered on long-term architectural scalability rather than near-term few-qubit demonstrations.

About Firgun Ventures

Firgun is the market’s first venture capital firm specializing in early growth-stage quantum technology investment. Founded by Dr Kris Naudts, former Academic Psychiatrist-Neuroscientist and Founder of Culture Trip, and Zeynep Koruturk, former Executive at Goldman Sachs’ and Co-Founder of Goldman’s Tech Initiative, Firgun combines academic, operational and financial expertise with a deep-held belief in the world changing potential of quantum. As angel investors in what was then Cambridge Quantum Computing (now called Quantinuum), Naudts and Koruturk have already played a key role in its spectacular growth into the world’s most valuable quantum company.

With an expert team and world-class advisory council hailing from institutions including Cambridge and Oxford University, MIT, Google, the European Investment Bank and the Wellcome Trust, Firgun provides top tier, quantum-specific due diligence, in addition to the entrepreneurial and investment credentials of its two co-founders.  

For more information, visit https://firgun.vc/ 

David Parmet
HKA Marketing Communications
+1 (714) 426-0444
david@hkamarcom.com

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