Commercial nuclear fusion remains an elusive goal, yet investor enthusiasm for its clean, safe, and nearly limitless potential energy continues to build momentum. Significantly, most startups attracting large-scale fusion funding have been U.S.-based, but now Proxima Fusion, a German company, has broken into this distinguished group, securing €130 million (around $148 million) in its recent Series A funding round. This latest investment was co-led by Balderton Capital and Cherry Ventures.
The new funding brings Proxima Fusion’s total financing to date above €185 million (approximately $200 million), firmly establishing it among Europe’s leading challengers seeking alternatives to current nuclear fission technology dependent on imported uranium and related materials. The financial backing places Proxima as a serious European contender in a highly strategic international competition, one closely linked both to technological innovation and geopolitical energy security.
Francesco Sciortino, Proxima Fusion’s CEO and co-founder, believes the coming decade will see leading fusion ventures emerging as critical players within major geopolitical blocks. “By the early 2030s, you should expect every major geopolitical region to have its fusion giants,” Sciortino stated.
Prior to this Series A round, Proxima was limited by a comparatively modest seed funding round of €20 million ($21.7 million) closed in April 2024. Since that round, however, the company reached a major milestone by publishing its concept for a viable fusion power facility in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
In particular, Proxima’s research emphasizes stellarators, fusion reactors employing carefully calculated magnetic fields to confine heated plasma into an elongated ring to sustain fusion conditions. Unlike their primary competitors—tokamak reactors—stellarators do not rely on an internal plasma current, granting them greater stability. Benefitting from proximity and technical insights gained from Germany’s Wendelstein 7-X, the largest existing stellarator, Proxima developed its unique reactor concept known as Stellaris.
According to Sciortino, achieving the Stellaris reactor milestone faster than expected was pivotal to investor confidence, leading to a significantly oversubscribed funding round. This influx of resources now provides Proxima Fusion the strategic partners and capital structure necessary for critical future stages.
Both lead investors in this Series A round, Balderton and Cherry Ventures, possess the financial depth necessary to continue their support in subsequent stages. Balderton recently amassed $1.3 billion in funding, and Cherry Ventures secured $500 million earlier this year, positioning both firms strongly for continued involvement going forward.
Sciortino indicated the company will likely rely primarily on venture funding until approximately 2031, at which time alternative funding sources will be explored to propel commercialization. A pivotal hardware demonstration slated for 2027 is expected to serve as the next significant milestone, highlighting seriousness in timelines within venture expectations.
Doubts inevitably linger given the ambitious timeline of fusion technology, but key investors remain committed. Ian Hogarth of Plural, who has repeatedly invested in Proxima Fusion, characterizes it as a “big shot” capable of dramatically reshaping Europe’s energy landscape. Hogarth emphasizes Europe’s potential for global leadership in clean energy, portraying Proxima’s fusion technology as a major opportunity for the continent in the broader push towards decarbonization and energy security.
Proxima Fusion’s latest funding round included a strongly European cohort of notable investors such as Bayern Kapital, Club degli Investitori, the DeepTech & Climate Fonds (DTCF), Elaia, HTGF, Leitmotif, Lightspeed, Omnes Capital, and UVC Partners. Headquartered in Munich, Proxima is a spin-off from Germany’s prestigious Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, and it collaborates closely with Switzerland’s Paul Scherrer Institute and the UK’s Culham Centre for Fusion Energy.
Sciortino himself has an international research background including tenures in Italy, Switzerland, the UK, and the US (MIT), before returning to Europe to help build this fusion-focused enterprise. To Sciortino, the project represents not only a technological ambition but also an opportunity to establish Europe’s future as an influential and independent actor in global energy innovation.
