Munich — Proxima Fusion, the first spin-out of the Max Planck Insti­tute for Plasma Physics (IPP), has recei­ved seed funding of 20 million euros to acce­le­rate the cons­truc­tion of the first gene­ra­tion of fusion power plants. The Munich-based start-up has set itself the goal of enab­ling a new era of scalable, emis­­sion-free energy. The tech­no­logy for this is based on the prin­ci­ple of opti­mi­zed quasi-isody­na­­mic (QI) stel­la­ra­tors and high-tempe­ra­­ture superconductors.

Redal­pine leads the seed finan­cing round — with invest­ments from Bayern Kapi­tal, the DeepT­ech & Climate Fund and the Max Planck Foun­da­tion. As an exis­ting inves­tor, UVC Part­ners doubles the pre-seed invest­ment along­side Plural, High-Tech Grün­der­fonds, Wilbe and Visio­na­ries Club.

Inno­va­tive tech­no­logy in the field of compu­­ter-based simulations

QI stel­la­ra­tors are one of the most promi­sing tech­no­lo­gies when it comes to tapping CO2-free, safe and almost unli­mi­ted energy. The funda­men­tal scien­ti­fic ques­ti­ons in magne­tic fusion have been inten­si­vely rese­ar­ched for more than six deca­des. Howe­ver, the gene­ra­tion of sustainable and econo­mic­ally viable fusion energy remained a chall­enge. Proxima Fusion builds on the results of the Wendel­stein 7‑X (W7‑X) expe­ri­ment, the world’s largest stel­la­ra­tor at the Max Planck Insti­tute for Plasma Physics.

Dr. Fran­cesco Sciort­ino, co-foun­­der and CEO of Proxima Fusion“In April 2023, we star­ted with the tech­ni­cal opti­miza­tion and deve­lo­p­ment of magnets made of high-tempe­ra­­ture super­con­duc­tors. We are now making tremen­dous progress in inte­gra­ted design with our Star­Fin­der auto­ma­tion system. The support of high-profile inves­tors confirms the high quality of the team and its pionee­ring impact.” In addi­tion to acce­le­ra­ting deve­lo­p­ment in the areas of hard­ware and soft­ware, Proxima Fusion will use the seed funding in parti­cu­lar to expand the team.

Benja­min Erhart, Gene­ral Part­ner at UVC Part­ners: “Proxima Fusion’s strengths in auto­ma­ted design, AI-assis­­ted engi­nee­ring, high-tempe­ra­­ture super­con­duc­tor magnet tech­no­logy and the team’s rapid growth and capa­bi­li­ties give us confi­dence in making fusion energy a reality in power plant operations.”

About Proxima Fusion

As the first spin-out of the Max Planck Insti­tute for Plasma Physics, Proxima Fusion is acce­le­ra­ting a para­digm shift in the energy sector. The Munich-based start-up is buil­ding on the pionee­ring W7‑X expe­ri­ment in Germany and is deve­lo­ping the world’s first QI stel­la­ra­tor power plant using high-tempe­ra­­ture super­con­duc­tors. The declared aim is to tap into the universe’s ulti­mate energy source in order to gene­rate conti­nuous and relia­ble emis­­sion-free energy. In 2023, engi­neers and scien­tists from orga­niza­ti­ons such as the Max Planck Society, MIT and Google foun­ded Proxima Fusion and the company is alre­ady leading Europe into a new era of clean energy. www.proximafusion.com

About UVC Partners

UVC Part­ners is a Munich and Berlin-based early stage venture capi­tal firm that invests in Euro­pean B2B start-ups in the fields of enter­prise soft­ware, indus­trial tech­no­lo­gies and mobi­lity. The fund gene­rally invests between €0.5 and €10 million at the outset and up to €30 million in total per company. The port­fo­lio compa­nies bene­fit from the exten­sive invest­ment and exit expe­ri­ence of the manage­ment team as well as from the close coope­ra­tion with Unter­neh­mer­TUM, Europe’s leading inno­va­tion and start-up center. With over 400 employees and more than 100 indus­try part­ners, Unter­neh­mer­TUM can draw on many years of expe­ri­ence in buil­ding young compa­nies. This colla­bo­ra­tion gives UVC Part­ners the oppor­tu­nity to provide start­ups with unique access to talent, indus­try clients and other finan­cial part­ners. www.uvcpartners.com