Proxima Fusion, a German startup that wants to help make fusion energy a commercial reality, announced today that it has reached an eye-watering €130 million (approximately $149 million USD) in its Series A round of funding.
This major new investment is the highest private fusion financing round in Europe, and supports the company’s bold mission to build the world’s first fusion power plant based on the stellarator, and start delivering fusion electricity to the grid during the 2030s.
Founded in early 2023 as a spinoff from the renowned Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP), Proxima Fusion is advancing quasi-isodynamic (QI) stellarators.
These complex, doughnut-shaped machines trap and heat superhot ionized plasma using delicate magnetic fields, a key step toward the practical fusion of atoms — and so far, pretty much the only successful one.
The company’s method integrates public fusion research over the course of decades, such as from the IPP’s game-changing Wendelstein 7-X stellarator, and state-of-the-art research in high-temperature superconductors (HTS) and simulation-directed engineering.
I discussed the transformational aspect of fusion with Francesco Sciortino, CEO and Co-founder of Proxima Fusion: “Fusion is the most powerful source of clean energy that humanity is capable of. Once we have fusion as an energy source we can say this is how we change how we have power for human civilization.
The freshly raised capital will be used in few of the important tasks. Proxima Fusion will begin operation of the Stellarator Model Coil (SMC) in 2027, a development co-funded time-scale SMT for de-risking HTS in Stellarators.
Upon completion of this, the company hopes to select a site for “Alpha”, its test stellarator, with this scheduled to begin operations in 2031. Alpha is anticipated to be an important milestone to show Q>1 (gain = net energy output) and to the first, of its kind, commercial fusion power plant.
The Series A round was co-led by Cherry Ventures and Balderton Capital who were well supported by a syndicate including UVC Partners, DeepTech & Climate Fonds (DTCF), Plural, Leitmotif, Lightspeed, Bayern Kapital, HTGF, Club degli Investitori, OMNES Capital, Elaia Partners and Wilbe.
This investment reflects increasing investor confidence in stellarator technology as a competitive route to clean, continuous fusion power, and places Europe at the cutting edge of the international fusion race.