Munich-based Proxima Fusion, a fusion company, has secured €130M in Series A funding co-led by Cherry Ventures and Balderton Capital to build the world’s first commercial stellarator-based fusion power plant.
Founded by Francesco Sciortino, Lucio Milanese, Jorrit Lion, Martin Kubie and Jonathan Schilling in 2023, the startup has now raised a total of more than €185M since its inception.
The funding will accelerate development of Proxima Fusion’s Stellarator Model Coil (SMC) for completion in 2027, advancing high-temperature superconductor technology for stellarators.
Proxima Fusion will also finalise a site for Alpha, its demonstration stellarator scheduled to begin operations in 2031, targeting Q>1 net energy gain as the key step towards commercial fusion power generation.
The round attracted participation 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.
Proxima Fusion operates from three offices with a team of 80+ members across Munich headquarters, the Paul Scherrer Institute near Zurich, and the Culham fusion campus near Oxford.
Europe’s largest private fusion investment targeting 2030s deployment
The Series A represents the largest private fusion investment round in Europe, positioning Proxima Fusion to leverage the continent’s established fusion research infrastructure and industrial supply chains.
The company’s simulation-driven approach builds on results from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) Wendelstein 7-X stellarator experiment, with which it maintains a close public-private partnership.
Unlike competitors such as Novatron Fusion Group, Renaissance Fusion, and Tokamak Energy, Proxima differentiates through its quasi-isodynamic stellarator design integrated with advanced high-temperature superconducting technology.
From Max Planck spin-out to European fusion leadership
The founding team assembled expertise from leading institutions, including IPP, MIT, Harvard, SpaceX, Tesla, and McLaren, to commercialise decades of European fusion research. Cherry Ventures Founding Partner Filip Dames brings deep tech investment experience, having backed founders tackling complex infrastructure challenges across multiple sectors.
Francesco Sciortino, CEO and co-founder of Proxima Fusion, says, “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.”
Filip Dames, Cherry Ventures Founding Partner, adds, “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.”
Stellaris breakthrough validates commercial fusion pathway
Previous funding rounds demonstrate consistent investor confidence: €7M pre-seed co-led by Plural and UVC Partners in May 2023, followed by a €7.5M extension in November 2023 including new investors Visionaries Tomorrow, Hummingbird Collective, Achleitner Ventures, and Bosch Holding.
In April 2024, the company raised €20M in seed funding led by redalpine with participation from Bayern Kapital, DeepTech & Climate Fonds, and the Max Planck Foundation.
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