The deal is remarkable not only for its volume. It also underscores the growing importance of fusion energy as a strategic future technology – and shows that international investors are increasingly willing to finance European deeptech companies at a scale that was previously reserved mainly for US startups.
Record sum for the path to stellarator power plant
The Series A2 round is led by XTX Ventures and East X Ventures. Strategic investors also include RWE and Google. Additionally participating are KfW Capital, SPRIND, Burda Principal Investments and existing investors such as Plural, UVC Partners, Balderton, Cherry Ventures, DST Global, Brevan Howard Macro Venture, Lightspeed, DTCF, redalpine, Leitmotif, Elaia, CDP Venture Capital, Bayern Kapital and the EIC Fund.
With a company valuation of over €2.4 billion, Proxima Fusion now ranks among the world’s highest-valued fusion energy companies.
We spoke with Proxima Fusion founder Francesco Sciortino earlier this year about a technological turning point, billion-euro investments, and why fusion is suddenly becoming startup-viable.
Private and public funding interlock
Particularly remarkable is the speed of financing. In February, the Free State of Bavaria, RWE, Proxima Fusion and the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics signed a memorandum of understanding for the demonstrator “Alpha”.
Bavaria committed up to €400 million in public funds – on the condition that Proxima Fusion would raise private investments of the same amount. The startup has now fulfilled this requirement just three months after signing the agreement and has even exceeded the required sum.
Alpha to pave the way to the first commercial stellarator
The fresh capital is primarily intended for the construction of the Alpha demonstrator. It is to demonstrate net energy from fusion for the first time in the early 2030s and serve as the technological foundation for “Stellaris” – according to the company, the world’s first commercial stellarator fusion power plant.
Construction is planned for the RWE power plant site in Gundremmingen. In addition, Proxima Fusion is investing in expanding its development and manufacturing capacities as well as key technologies such as high-temperature superconductors, magnets and cryogenic technology. At the same time, the European supply chain for fusion technologies is to be expanded.
Google and RWE bet on fusion technology
With Google and RWE, Proxima Fusion gains two strategic partners with different interests in the technology.
While RWE wants to advance the joint development of a commercial stellarator power plant in Gundremmingen, Google sees fusion long-term as a potential source of clean and baseload energy – particularly with regard to the rising energy demands of large data centers and AI applications.
More than €650 million in capital since founding
In less than three years, Proxima Fusion has raised a total of more than €650 million in funding, according to the company’s own statements. Of this, approximately €95 million comes from public funding. The company now employs around 200 employees and is headquartered in Munich with additional locations in Zurich and Oxford. It emerged as the first spin-off of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics and develops fusion power plants based on so-called QI-HTS stellarators.
