eleQtron's EIC Accelerator Ion Trap Reports €54M of Orders

Trapped-ion quantum computers usually control their qubits with complex laser setups. eleQtron, a 2020 spin-off of the University of Siegen, replaces the lasers with microwaves. Its technology, MAGIC (magnetic gradient induced coupling), uses magnetic field gradients and miniaturised microwave emitters to address individual ions, which the company says reduces crosstalk and infrastructure.

The EIC Accelerator selected the project, MAGICAL, at its October 2024 cut-off under the challenge for emerging quantum technology components, and CORDIS records a grant of €2,495,325 from June 2025 to May 2027 to finish a scalable on-chip trapped-ion processor. In May 2026 eleQtron raised a €57 million Series A, with the EIC Fund among the investors, and reported more than €54 million in signed orders.

The DLR contracts

eleQtron's first large customer was the German Aerospace Center. In October 2022 the DLR Quantum Computing Initiative awarded €208.5 million across five ion-trap projects; eleQtron, NXP Semiconductors and ParityQC won two of them, a 10-qubit demonstration model and modular quantum computer prototypes meant to reach at least 50 qubits within four years. In June 2024 the three companies delivered the 10-qubit full-stack demonstrator, Quantum Computing Report reported; BeBeez identifies it as QSea I with prototype MAGIC hardware from eleQtron.

MAGICAL: measured gate fidelities

The CORDIS summary claims very low crosstalk, high gate fidelities, coherence times of up to ten seconds, all-to-all connectivity between qubits and operation at higher temperatures than superconducting systems. The first periodic report, for June 2025 to May 2026, puts numbers on some of that: an average single-qubit gate fidelity of 99.68%, an average two-qubit gate fidelity of 98.94%, crosstalk of about 10⁻⁵, and 95.82% average fidelity for two-qubit entangled states on a six-qubit register, stable over several weeks of daily runs.

The year also produced a detailed simulation of the platform, benchmarking and calibration methods, software for automated characterisation and hardware monitoring, pulse-level error mitigation and a theoretical study suggesting that phase-modulated gates could run about 30 times faster than the current ones. The report names no chip or system delivered in the period.

1. High-fidelity microwave gatesMeasured99.68% single-qubit, 98.94% two-qubit fidelity.
2. Low crosstalkMeasuredAbout 10⁻⁵, per the periodic report.
3. On-chip integrated processorIn developmentNo chip delivery reported in period 1.
4. Cloud access and industrial productionFunded, not donePlanned with the Series A money.

A €57 million Series A

The round, announced on 5 May 2026, was led by Schwarz Digits, the IT arm of the Schwarz Group, with the EIC Fund, existing investor Earlybird, Ankaa Ventures, Precitec and the development banks NRW.BANK and IFB Hamburg, according to Quantum Computing Report and Dealroom. The money is to scale production, expand cloud access and move systems from the lab to industrial production. eleQtron has more than 100 employees.

The order backlog of more than €54 million is nearly as large as the round. The customers behind it were not named, and Dealroom noted that the orders still have to be delivered and that scaling trapped-ion hardware remains an unsolved engineering problem across the industry.

German quantum hardware with German money

eleQtron is part of a German effort to build quantum computers at home, from the DLR initiative to regional development banks and Schwarz Digits. CEO Jan Henrik Leisse said that "quantum computing is transitioning from a research-driven technology to an industrially usable infrastructure". The EIC grant and the EIC Fund's investment put European money behind the same goal.