Investment News
Europe’s Fusion Champion Comes of Age
Proxima Fusion Raises €411 Million to Build the First Commercial Stellarator
When DTCF joined Proxima Fusion’s seed round, fusion was still something most people filed under „promising but distant.“ Today, with a €411 million Series A2 at a €2.4 billion valuation, it is neither.
This is the largest private financing round ever raised by a European fusion company. It is also one of the largest private investments in European technology this year, full stop. The round was led by XTX Ventures and East X Ventures, with RWE and Google joining as strategic investors, alongside Burda Principal Investments, and a strong group of returning investors including Plural, UVC Partners, Balderton, Cherry Ventures, DST Global Partners, Brevan Howard Macro Venture, Lightspeed, redalpine, Leitmotif, Elaia, CDP Venture Capital, HTGF, Bayern Kapital, KfW Capital, SPRIND, and the EIC Fund.
We are proud to be among them.
From Spin-Out to Europe’s Fusion Champion
Proxima Fusion was founded as the first spin-out from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, building on decades of scientific breakthroughs from the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator programme. HTGF backed the company from its very first round. DTCF joined at seed stage and played a key role in structuring the record Series A in 2025.
In less than three years, Proxima has secured more than €650 million in total financing, including €95 million in public grants. That trajectory is not accidental. It reflects a team that has consistently delivered on its milestones and a technology roadmap that has earned the trust of some of the world’s most sophisticated investors.
„Europe is racing with the United States and China to get to the first fusion power plant,“ says Dr. Francesco Sciortino, Co-Founder and CEO of Proxima Fusion. „Proxima’s financing demonstrates that Europe can not only invent breakthrough technologies, but also build globally competitive companies around them. Investors recognise both the urgency and the opportunity of what we’re doing and are backing us to develop a generational energy technology company.“
What the Capital Is For
The financing funds Alpha, Proxima’s net-energy stellarator demonstrator near Munich. Developed in partnership with the Free State of Bavaria, the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, and RWE, Alpha is the critical bridge between decades of fusion research and commercial deployment. It will validate key technologies and accelerate the path to Stellaris, planned to be the world’s first commercial stellarator fusion power plant, on the site of a former nuclear fission plant in Gundremmingen, Bavaria.
Just a few months passed between the signing of the MoU with Bavaria, RWE, and the Max Planck Institute, and the close of this round. Bavaria had signaled a €400 million public funding contribution, conditional on Proxima raising equivalent private capital. Proxima exceeded that target. It is a clear demonstration of how well-structured public-private partnerships can mobilize capital at scale, and at speed.
With the proceeds, Proxima will complete the Stellarator Model Coil, scale up high-temperature superconducting (HTS) cable and magnet production, and accelerate hiring across its three locations in Germany, Switzerland, and the UK.
Why This Round Matters for Europe
RWE’s participation as a strategic investor, just months after signing the Gundremmingen agreement, is a signal worth noting. So is Google’s. These are not symbolic gestures. They reflect a growing recognition that fusion is becoming an investable industry, not a research programme.
„This round shows that fusion is no longer a bet on distant science, it’s an investable industry today,“ says Dr. Torsten Löffler, Investment Director at DTCF. „Proxima is proving that Europe has both the technology and the capital discipline to lead in one of the most consequential energy technologies of this century.“
The geopolitical dimension is real. The United States and China are both investing heavily in fusion as a strategic technology. Europe’s answer is not to wait. It is to build.
The Conviction That Got Us Here
Backing Proxima has never been about hedging. It has been about recognizing, early, that the combination of scientific depth, a world-class team, and a clear industrial roadmap made this a company worth committing to, through multiple rounds and over the long term.
„I see hundreds of deep tech opportunities every year, and very few carry the weight of Proxima’s,“ says Romy Schnelle, Managing Director at DTCF. „When we backed Proxima at pre-seed, fusion was still a scientific ambition for most people. Only three years later, €411 million and investors like RWE and Google confirm it’s an industrial one. Recognising that shift early, and having the conviction to fund it, is what our Multi-Stage-VC platform is built for.“
That platform, the partnership between HTGF and DTCF, pools more than €3 billion in fund volume to support founders from first idea to international scale. Proxima Fusion is one of the clearest examples of what that continuity of capital can enable.
„We backed Proxima from their very first round, not despite the ambition, but because of it,“ adds Johannes Weber, Partner at HTGF. „Frontier deep tech that can spark a new Wirtschaftswunder in Germany and Europe is exactly what gets us out of bed in the morning. Proxima has a real shot at creating an entirely new industry and supplier ecosystem, with GDP-level impact. We couldn’t be prouder to be part of this journey.“
What Comes Next
Alpha is the next major milestone. If it achieves net energy gain in a stellarator for the first time, it will mark one of the most significant moments in the history of energy technology. Stellaris, the commercial power plant, would follow later this decade.
The road ahead is still long and technically demanding. But for the first time, Europe is not just researching fusion. It is financing it, building it, and racing to lead it.
We congratulate Francesco and the entire Proxima Fusion team on this milestone, and we look forward to the chapters ahead.
Media Contacts & Press Material
Maria Dantz, Head of Communications, Proxima Fusion, mdantz@proximafusion.com
Stephanie Stein, Head of Communications, DeepTech & Climate Fonds, s.stein@dtcf.de
Official Statement from Proxima Fusion (External Link)
Official Press Release (English; PDF)
Official Press Release (German; PDF)