Munich-based Proxima Fusion has raised €130 million in a Series A funding round led by Balderton Capital and Cherry Ventures, positioning it as one of Europe’s leading contenders in the race for commercial nuclear fusion energy.
The round brings its total funding to more than €185 million.
Building on stellarator momentum
Proxima Fusion is developing stellarator-based reactors, which use magnetic fields to confine plasma without the need for a plasma current—making them more stable than traditional tokamaks. The company published its Stellaris reactor concept in a peer-reviewed journal just one year after closing its €20 million seed round in April 2024, achieving a major milestone ahead of schedule.
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Funding timeline and future plans
The fresh capital will fund a critical hardware demonstration planned for 2027, with CEO Francesco Sciortino projecting the company will rely on venture capital through 2031 before tapping into alternative capital sources. The oversubscribed round attracted a strong roster of European backers, including Bayern Kapital, Elaia, HTGF, UVC Partners, and Lightspeed.
A proudly European effort
Although headquartered in Munich and spun out from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Proxima Fusion’s team also operates out of Switzerland’s Paul Scherrer Institute and the UK’s Culham Centre for Fusion Energy. Sciortino, originally from Italy, emphasized the importance of Europe playing a central role in the global energy transition.
Fusion as the next frontier
With geopolitical blocks aiming to develop their own fusion “giants” by the early 2030s, Proxima’s progress offers a tangible step toward energy independence and decarbonization. As Sciortino puts it: “This is not an infinitely long journey. Our goal is fusion within this decade.”
