Pure-play Quantum · VC Firm · Active
Ground State Ventures
Ground State Ventures (formerly QDNL Participations, rebranded April 2026 at the $88M close of Fund II, 26% above the $70M target) is a global pure-play quantum VC.
Investment thesis
Ground State Ventures (formerly QDNL Participations, rebranded April 2026 at the $88M close of Fund II, 26% above the $70M target) is a global pure-play quantum VC. Launched March 2023 by Quantum Delta NL, headquartered in Amsterdam with offices in London and San Francisco. Fund I (€15M, Dutch focus, fully committed) has been succeeded by a globally mandated Fund II. Initial cheques $500k to $1.5M, typically leading rounds, with follow-on capacity through Series A and beyond.
Dutch Fund I portfolio: Qblox (modular quantum control), QuantWare (superconducting processors, backed at €20M Series A March 2025 and $178M Series B led by Intel May 2026), QphoX (microwave-optical transduction), Q*Bird (QKD), Orange Quantum Systems (chip testing, €12M seed Aug 2025), QT Sense (life-sciences sensing, followed in €4M seed Feb 2026). Fund II global deployment started late 2025 with SiC Systems (first US ticket, Oct 2025), Quantum Elements (LA, AI-native quantum dev platform, Oct 2025), EuQlid (semiconductors and batteries, $3M seed Nov 2025), Diffraqtion (MIT quantum camera satellite spinout, $4.2M pre-seed Jan 2026), Rhonexum (Swiss cryo-electronics, $1M pre-seed Mar 2026), and Sygaldry (Chad Rigetti's new quantum-accelerated AI server company, $105M Series A Mar 2026).
Unusually deep quantum operator bench: Ton van 't Noordende (Founder & General Partner), Chad Rigetti (Partner, founder of Rigetti Computing), Kris Kaczmarek (Partner since May 2026, ex-ORCA Computing, ex-2xN). Scientific bench reinforced by Special Advisors Charles Marcus (ex-Microsoft Quantum Lab Copenhagen) and Nadia Carlsten (ex-SandboxAQ VP Product). Investment team also includes Cheryne Jonay (Analyst) and Nic Weiroster (Investment Associate).
Ground State Ventures stands out as the only pure-play quantum VC historically anchored by a national innovation agency (Quantum Delta NL), now scaled into a global gateway to the Dutch quantum stack (QuTech, TU Delft, House of Quantum). Also runs the Infinity free spin-out support program for Dutch researchers.
Anti-thesis
The patterns that trigger a fast no with this fund.
- No quantum-adjacent plays: Ground State Ventures backs real qubits, photonics, cryogenics, sensing or component hardware, not AI-for-quantum wrappers or post-quantum crypto SaaS
- No late-stage or growth-only rounds: tickets are $500k to $1.5M lead at pre-seed and seed, follow-on capacity exists through Series A and beyond but Series B narratives without prior relationship are out of scope
- No founders without scientific depth: the fund exists to de-risk scientist founders out of QuTech, TNO, TU Delft, CWI, MIT, Stanford or equivalent global research labs; non-technical CEOs with outsourced physics team do not fit
- No purely consumer or generalist deep tech: pure-play quantum specialist, anything outside hardware, communications, sensing, photonics, computing or essential supply components is declined
- No 'we will move to NL later' stories for the legacy Dutch pocket: the original €15M vehicle is Netherlands-only, the $88M global Fund II still rewards a credible European supply-chain or Quantum Delta NL ecosystem tie
Notable quantum portfolio
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