Proxima Fusion, the first spin-out from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP), has announced a significant €20M seed funding round. This round, led by redalpine and notably oversubscribed, marks a pivotal moment for the Munich-based startup.
The funding round saw participation from the Bavarian government-backed Bayern Kapital, German government-backed DeepTech & Climate Fonds, and the Max Planck Foundation, with existing investors like Plural, UVC Partners, High-Tech Gründerfonds, Wilbe, and TOMORROW of Visionaries Club doubling down on their investments.
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Advancing Fusion Power Plant Development
The investment will be utilized to construct the first generation of fusion power plants using quasi-isodynamic (QI) stellarators with high-temperature superconductors. Proxima Fusion also plans to expand its team with top-tier engineers and physicists and to leverage public funding awards.
Dr. Francesco Sciortino, Co-Founder and CEO of Proxima Fusion, expressed enthusiasm about the support from strategic investors, highlighting the team’s quality, early progress, and the transformative potential of their mission.
Optimized Stellarators for Unlimited Energy
Founded in January 2023 by former scientists and engineers from the Max Planck IPP, MIT, and Google-X, Proxima Fusion is developing power plants via optimized stellarators. These devices aim to create magnetic cages for high-energy matter, offering a carbon-free, safe, and limitless energy source. Despite six decades of research, achieving sustained and commercially viable fusion has been challenging. Proxima Fusion’s goal is to develop a high-performance stellarator capable of demonstrating net-energy production by 2031 and to construct a fusion power plant in the 2030s.
Leveraging AI and Engineering for Fusion Breakthroughs
Proxima Fusion’s approach to overcoming fusion energy challenges involves a simulation-driven engineering process enhanced by AI-enabled design. The company’s engineering program is structured to collect training data for AI applications across various domains. Co-Founder Martin Kubie emphasized the vision for radical automation in the design of QI stellarators, noting significant progress towards enabling this vision within a year.
Building on the Wendelstein 7-X Experiment
The company’s efforts build upon the groundbreaking results from the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) experiment, the world’s largest stellarator at the Max Planck IPP. This experiment, supported by visionary public investment from the German Government and the European Union totaling €1.3B, has disrupted the field of stellarator optimization.
Investor Confidence in Fusion’s Potential
Redalpine, a Swiss venture capital firm with over €1B in assets under management, supports Proxima Fusion’s mission. Harald Nieder, physicist and General Partner at redalpine, highlighted the dual challenge and opportunity presented by fusion energy, expressing excitement about partnering with Proxima Fusion’s team to set a new standard for European deeptech moonshots.
With this seed funding, Proxima Fusion is set to advance the development of fusion power plants, potentially revolutionizing the energy sector with a clean, unlimited power source.
