Insider Brief
- RhymeQ raised $2.2 million in pre-seed funding to develop software designed to let Python developers program quantum computers.
- Its Rhyme compiler translates conventional code for multiple quantum processors and NVIDIA CUDA-Q, supporting both quantum simulators and hardware.
- The funding will support engineering hires, enterprise platform development, hardware partnerships and expansion of its developer community.
RhymeQ, a startup making quantum computers accessible to software developers across the world, has raised a $2.2 million pre-seed round led by Ground State Ventures, with participation from Vanagon Ventures, Plug and Play, and Freiraum Ventures.
Quantum computers promise to solve significant problems and expand the reach of supercomputing and AI, for instance in chemicals, pharmaceuticals, finance, or manufacturing. However, coding for a quantum computer currently requires a PhD in quantum physics. Relatively few people globally are currently capable of that.
RhymeQ has developed Rhyme, a new abstraction layer that allows every developer with basic Python skills to code for quantum. The actual coding is familiar and conventional, while the company’s compilers handle the translation for quantum computers. What’s more, it’s compatible across multiple quantum processors, with no hardware lock-in.
“We are on a mission to make quantum computers programmable by every developer on the planet,” says RhymeQ founder and CEO Daniel Volz. “While vibe coding is taking over the classical programming world, the situation is not so simple in the quantum world. Quantum circuits can only be debugged by PhD-level physicists. With Rhyme, any programmer can both develop and debug production-ready code to run on quantum computers at enterprise level.”
Volz previously led quantum computing initiatives for McKinsey and BASF and co-founded quantum startup Kipu Quantum. He co-founded RhymeQ in 2026 with CTO Tamás Varga and COO Christina Wu. Varga, the inventor of Rhyme, spent more than 15 years as a software engineer at Swiss Re and UBS. RhymeQ is based in Karlsruhe, Germany and Zürich, Switzerland.
Kris Kaczmarek, Partner at Ground State Ventures, says: “While the gap between quantum algorithms and hardware is closing fast, we keep hearing ‘who cares if no one knows how to use them’. This is the gap RhymeQ is closing. And there’s no one who understands this better than Daniel Volz, who’s seen both sides of the equation, whether it was implementing quantum for chemistry at BASF or providing quantum solutions at Kipu Quantum.”
Funds will be used to grow the engineering team, build out Rhyme’s enterprise platform, and grow a worldwide community of Rhyme developers. RhymeQ will also partner with quantum hardware companies to integrate their existing software libraries with Rhyme.
RhymeQ comes out of stealth today at NVIDIA GTC Berlin, where Daniel Volz will unveil Rhyme at the NVIDIA Inception startup pitch session. RhymeQ is a member of NVIDIA Inception, NVIDIA’s program for cutting-edge startups. Rhyme compiles directly to the NVIDIA CUDA-Q platform, so the same code runs on GPU-accelerated quantum simulators and on real quantum processors from a range of hardware providers.
From today, the first developers on the RhymeQ waitlist get free access to the Rhyme compiler and the Rhyme developer community, with further invitations rolling out in the coming weeks.
Developers can join the waitlist at www.rhymeq.com