Proxima Fusion, Europe’s fastest-growing fusion energy start-up, has raised €130 million ($150 million) in a series A round, the largest private fusion funding round in European history, as it accelerates plans to build the world’s first stellarator-based fusion power plant.
A stellarator-based fusion power plant is a type of magnetic confinement fusion reactor designed to generate clean energy by mimicking the nuclear fusion processes that occur in stars.
The financing round was co-led by venture capital firms Cherry Ventures and Balderton Capital, with participation from a broad coalition of deep tech and climate investors, including UVC Partners, DeepTech & Climate Fonds, Plural, Lightspeed, and redalpine, which led the company’s seed round in 2023.
According to a press note, the new capital brings Proxima’s total funding to over €185 million.
A European Bid for Energy Sovereignty
Founded in April 2023 as a spin-out from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Proxima Fusion is spearheading efforts to commercialize a unique class of fusion reactors based on stellarator technology.
The firm is working closely with IPP under a public-private partnership to push Europe to the forefront of clean, high-tech energy development.
“Fusion has become a real, strategic opportunity to shift global energy dependence from natural resources to technological leadership,” said Francesco Sciortino, Proxima’s CEO and co-founder. “Proxima is perfectly positioned to harness that momentum.”
The European Union and national governments in Germany, the UK, France and Italy have increasingly endorsed fusion as a cornerstone of future energy policy, citing its potential to secure energy independence and support climate targets.
From Research to Reality
Proxima’s core approach combines simulation-led design, advanced computing, and high-temperature superconducting magnet technology to improve upon the Wendelstein 7-X experiment — a flagship stellarator project at IPP.
Earlier this year, the company introduced Stellaris, the first peer-reviewed stellarator concept to holistically integrate physics, engineering and maintenance from inception.
The design has been widely recognized within the industry as a breakthrough in the pursuit of a commercially viable fusion power plant.
“Stellarators aren’t just the most technologically viable approach to fusion energy—they’re the power plants of the future,” said Daniel Waterhouse, Partner at Balderton Capital. “Proxima has firmly secured its position as the leading European contender in the global race to commercial fusion.”
Demonstration on the Horizon
With the new funding, Proxima aims to complete its Stellarator Model Coil by 2027 — a critical hardware milestone intended to validate HTS technology in stellarators and catalyze further European innovation.
The company is also in active discussions with several European governments to finalize a site for Alpha, its demonstration stellarator, which is set to begin operations in 2031.
Alpha is expected to achieve Q>1 — a key technical threshold indicating net energy gain from fusion — and will pave the way for a first-of-a-kind fusion power plant in the 2030s.
Building a Fusion-Ready Workforce
Proxima currently employs over 80 staff across three European sites: its Munich headquarters, the Paul Scherrer Institute near Zurich and the Culham fusion campus near Oxford. Its team includes talent from top academic institutions and technology firms such as MIT, SpaceX, and Tesla.
“Fusion energy is entering a new era — moving from lab-based science to industrial-scale engineering,” Sciortino said. “This investment validates our approach and gives us the resources to deliver hardware that is essential to make clean fusion power a reality.”
