German startup Proxima Fusion has joined the elite ranks of nuclear fusion innovators by closing a €130 million Series A round, equivalent to roughly $148 million. The funding was led by Balderton Capital and Cherry Ventures, pushing Proxima’s total raised to over €185 million ($200 million).
While most deep-pocketed fusion startups are U.S.-based, Proxima is positioning itself as Europe’s strongest contender in the global push for clean, abundant fusion power. The Munich-based company is building its technology around stellarators, a more stable alternative to the popular tokamak reactor design.
CEO and co-founder Francesco Sciortino told TechCrunch the team reached its initial milestone—designing its own fusion power plant concept, Stellaris—twice as fast as originally promised. The design, published in a peer-reviewed journal, builds on insights from the Wendelstein 7-X, the world’s largest operational stellarator located in Germany.
Proxima Fusion spun out from the Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics in 2023 and now also operates teams at Switzerland’s Paul Scherrer Institute and the U.K.’s Culham Centre for Fusion Energy.
This fresh funding will fuel Proxima’s journey through critical development stages, including a key hardware demonstration in 2027. According to Sciortino, the plan is to use venture capital to fund the company through 2031 before transitioning to other funding models.
Europe is betting big on Proxima’s vision. Investors see the company as key to energy independence and climate goals. “Fusion can decarbonize energy and give Europe a global leadership role in the transition,” said Ian Hogarth of Plural, a repeat investor.
Alongside Balderton and Cherry, other backers in this round include Bayern Kapital, DeepTech & Climate Fonds (DTCF), Lightspeed, Elaia, HTGF, OMNES, UVC Partners, and Club degli Investitori.
With its roots firmly in Europe but ambitions set on global relevance, Proxima Fusion is leading a bold charge toward practical fusion energy—and possibly rewriting the future of the energy sector in the process.https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2025-06-11/sciortino-proxima-fusion-is-like-a-european-treasure-video
