Proxima Fusion announced a €411 million ($468 million) financing round. The round brings the company’s valuation to €2.4 billion ($2.7 billion) and establishes Proxima Fusion as the best-funded fusion company in Europe.
The round was led by XTX Ventures and East X Ventures. Strategic investors RWE and Google also participated.
Additional investors included KfW Capital, SPRIND, and Burda Principal Investments. Returning investors included Plural, UVC Partners, Balderton, Cherry Ventures, DST Global Partners, Brevan Howard Macro Venture, Lightspeed, DTCF, redalpine, Leitmotif, Elaia, CDP Venture Capital, Bayern Kapital, and the EIC Fund.
The financing represents one of the largest private investments in European technology this year. It is also the largest private financing round completed by a European fusion company.
RWE’s investment follows its recent agreement with Proxima Fusion to partner on building the first stellarator fusion power plant at the site of a former nuclear fission power plant in Gundremmingen, Bavaria. Google’s participation reflects its long-term interest in fusion as a potential source of abundant, carbon-free, sustainable energy.
The funding will support the development of Alpha, Proxima Fusion’s net-energy stellarator demonstrator near Munich. Alpha is intended to serve as the bridge between decades of fusion research and commercial deployment.
The Alpha project is being led by Proxima Fusion in partnership with the state of Bavaria, the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, and RWE. The project is expected to validate key technologies and accelerate development of the company’s planned commercial fusion power plant later in the decade.
In less than three years, Proxima Fusion has secured more than €650 million ($740 million), including €95 million in public grants. The latest financing was completed three months after the company signed a memorandum of understanding with the Free State of Bavaria, RWE, and the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics.
The round exceeded Proxima Fusion’s target of matching Bavaria’s planned €400 million public funding contribution to the company’s roadmap. The company said this illustrates how targeted public investment can help catalyze private capital at scale.
With the new funding, Proxima Fusion will focus on completing the Stellarator Model Coil. The company also plans to expand high-temperature superconducting cable and magnet production, and continue developing the engineering and manufacturing systems required for stellarators.
Proxima Fusion is hiring across engineering, manufacturing, and operations to accelerate its progress. The company currently employs about 200 people across engineering, science, and operations, with headquarters in Munich and offices in Zurich and Oxford.
Proxima Fusion is Europe’s leading stellarator company and the first spin-out from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics. The company is developing commercial fusion power plants based on the QI-HTS stellarator concept, building on scientific breakthroughs from the Wendelstein 7-X program.
The company’s Alpha demonstrator is targeted for the early 2030s. Proxima Fusion said Alpha is expected to pave the way for Stellaris, the company’s planned commercial stellarator fusion power plant later that decade.
KEY QUOTE:
“Europe is racing with the United States and China to get to the first fusion power plant. Proxima’s financing demonstrates that Europe can not only invent breakthrough technologies, but also build globally competitive companies around them. Investors recognise both the urgency and the opportunity of what we’re doing and are backing us to develop a generational energy technology company.”
Dr. Francesco Sciortino, Co-Founder and CEO of Proxima Fusion
