Quantum computing startup RhymeQ has emerged from stealth with a $2.2 million pre-seed funding round led by Ground State Ventures, with participation from Vanagon Ventures, Plug and Play, and Freiraum Ventures. The company is developing technology designed to make quantum computing accessible to software developers without specialised knowledge of quantum physics.
Founded in 2026 by Daniel Volz (CEO), Tamás Varga (CTO) and Christina Wu (COO), RhymeQ has developed Rhyme, a platform designed to simplify quantum programming.
Quantum computers have the potential to address complex computational problems in industries such as chemicals, pharmaceuticals, finance and manufacturing. However, programming these systems currently requires specialised expertise in quantum physics, limiting the number of developers able to work with the technology.
To address this challenge, RhymeQ has developed an abstraction layer that enables developers with basic Python skills to write code for quantum computers. The platform allows developers to use familiar programming methods, while its compilers translate the code for quantum hardware. It also supports multiple quantum processors, reducing dependence on individual hardware providers.
Commenting on the challenges of quantum programming, Daniel Volz, founder and CEO of RhymeQ, said:
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.
Kris Kaczmarek, Partner at Ground State Ventures, highlighted the gap between advances in quantum algorithms and hardware and the limited number of developers able to use them. He pointed to Volz’s experience implementing quantum computing at BASF and developing quantum solutions at Kipu Quantum as relevant to addressing this challenge.
RhymeQ is also a member of NVIDIA Inception, and its technology is compatible with NVIDIA’s CUDA-Q platform, allowing code to run on GPU-accelerated quantum simulators and quantum processors from different hardware providers.
The new funding will be used to expand RhymeQ’s engineering team, further develop its enterprise platform and build a global community of developers. The company also plans to collaborate with quantum hardware providers to integrate their existing software libraries with Rhyme.