Proxima Fusion raises €20m in seed funding round

The company's goal is to develop the first generation of fusion power plants utilising quasi-isodynamic (QI) stellarators with high-temperature superconductors.

Led by redalpine, the seed round saw interest from investors, including Bayern Kapital, DeepTech & Climate Fonds, and the Max Planck Foundation. Additionally, existing investors such as Plural, UVC Partners, High-Tech Gründerfonds, Wilbe, and TOMORROW of Visionaries Club have reinforced their commitment to the company.

While fusion research has spanned over six decades, achieving sustained and commercially viable fusion has remained elusive. However, Proxima Fusion said it has embraced an engineering- and simulation-focused approach, leveraging advanced computing to tackle these challenges.

The company's foundation lies in the results from the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) experiment, the world's largest stellarator located at the Max Planck IPP, which received substantial investment from the German government and the European Union.

Dr. Francesco Sciortino, co-founder and CEO of Proxima Fusion, emphasised the importance of simulation-driven engineering in their approach. "We have developed Proxima Fusion from the very beginning with a simulation-first approach," he said. "This enables physicists and engineers to model stellarator sub-systems using integrated tools, resulting in massive time-saving and greater resource efficiency."

Moreover, Proxima Fusion is taking simulation-driven engineering to the next level by integrating AI into their design process. Dr. Sciortino highlighted the potential of AI to advance engineering, drawing parallels to DeepMind's AlphaFold project, which advanced protein folding prediction through AI.

“Having developed an integrated simulation capability in Proxima Fusion, we have created an organisation that is fundamentally structured to leverage AI advances and apply them to one of humanity's greatest challenges: obtaining clean, safe and abundant energy," said Dr Sciortino.

With the seed funding, Proxima Fusion aims to accelerate the development of key enabling technologies in hardware and software domains. Additionally, the company plans to expand its team while leveraging public funding awards to further its ambitions.