Proxima Fusion, which is Europe’s fastest-growing fusion energy company, announced the closing of its €130 million ($150 million) Series A financing. The Series A funding was co-led by Cherry Ventures and Balderton Capital. Significant participation also came from UVC Partners, DeepTech & Climate Fonds (DTCF), Plural, Leitmotif, Lightspeed, Bayern Kapital, HTGF, Club degli Investitori, Omnes Capital, Elaia Partners, Visionaries Tomorrow, Wilbe, and redalpine.
This round brought Proxima Fusion’s total funding to over €185 million ($200 million) in private and public capital, advancing its mission to build the world’s first commercial fusion power plant based on a stellarator design.
Proxima origin: Proxima was founded in April 2023 as a spin-out from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP), with which it continues to work closely in a public-private partnership to lead Europe into a new era of clean energy. And the EU, as well as national governments including Germany, the UK, France, and Italy, are increasingly recognizing fusion as a generational technology essential for energy sovereignty, industrial competitiveness, and carbon-neutral economic growth.
Proxima is adopting a simulation-driven approach to engineering that leverages advanced computing and high-temperature superconducting (HTS) technology, building upon the groundbreaking results of the IPP’s Wendelstein 7-X stellarator experiment.
Earlier this year, together with the IPP, KIT, and other partners, Proxima unveiled Stellaris. And as the first peer-reviewed stellarator concept to integrate physics, engineering, and maintenance considerations from the outset, Stellaris has been widely recognized as a major breakthrough for the fusion industry, advancing the case for quasi-isodynamic (QI) stellarators as the most promising pathway to a commercial fusion power plant.
How the funding will be used: With this new funding round, the company will complete its Stellarator Model Coil (SMC) in 2027, a major hardware demonstration that will de-risk high-temperature superconductor (HTS) technology for stellarators and stimulate European HTS innovation. And Proxima will also finalize a site for Alpha, its demonstration stellarator, for which it is in talks with several European governments already. Alpha is scheduled to begin operations in 2031, and is the key step to demonstrating Q>1 (net energy gain) and moving towards a first-of-a-kind fusion power plant. The company will continue to grow its 80+-strong team across three offices: at the headquarters in Munich, at the Paul Scherrer Institute near Zurich (Switzerland), and at the Culham fusion campus near Oxford (UK).
KEY QUOTES:
“Fusion has become a real, strategic opportunity to shift global energy dependence from natural resources to technological leadership. Proxima is perfectly positioned to harness that momentum by uniting a spectacular engineering and manufacturing team with world-leading research institutions, accelerating the path toward bringing the first European fusion power plant online in the next decade.”
Francesco Sciortino, CEO and Co-founder of Proxima Fusion
“We back founders solving humanity’s hardest problems — and few are bigger than clean, limitless energy. Proxima Fusion combines Europe’s scientific edge with commercial ambition, turning world-class research into one of the most promising fusion ventures globally. This is deep tech at its best, and a bold signal that Europe can lead on the world stage.”
Filip Dames, Cherry Ventures Founding Partner
“Stellarators aren’t just the most technologically viable approach to fusion energy—they’re the power plants of the future, capable of leading Europe into a new era of clean energy. Proxima has firmly secured its position as the leading European contender in the global race to commercial fusion. We are thrilled to partner with Proxima’s game-changing team of engineers, alongside Europe’s top manufacturers, to build a company that will be transformational for Europe.”
Daniel Waterhouse, Partner at Balderton Capital
“Fusion energy is entering a new era—moving from lab-based science to industrial-scale engineering. This investment validates our approach and gives us the resources to deliver hardware that is essential to make clean fusion power a reality.”
Dr. Francesco Sciortino
“Proxima Fusion exemplifies a new kind of European ambition – a full force effort to develop the world’s first fusion power plant. Since their first round of funding two years ago, Francesco and the team have hit extremely challenging milestones ahead of schedule and hired a team that spans plasma physics, advanced magnet design and computer simulation. Their peer-reviewed stellarator power plant design concept confirms that fusion really can be commercially viable, and creates an opportunity for Europe to be first to the target.”
Ian Hogarth, Partner at Plural
