Overview

• The €130 million Series A marks Europe’s largest private fusion investment and was led by Balderton Capital and Cherry Ventures.
• Founded in 2023 as the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics’s first spin-out, Proxima now maintains R&D hubs in Munich, Switzerland’s Paul Scherrer Institute and the U.K.’s Culham Centre for Fusion Energy.
• Proxima’s Stellaris stellarator design confines plasma without a sustaining current, promising greater operational stability than conventional tokamak reactors.
• CEO Francesco Sciortino says the company will pursue additional venture funding through the early 2030s to meet key milestones beyond the current financing.
• The European Commission and national governments in Germany, the U.K., France and Italy regard fusion as essential for energy sovereignty and carbon-neutral industrial growth, bolstering support for startups like Proxima.