Plural invested in German Proxima Fusion
Stellarator is a device that forms magnetic cages for high-energy matter. It is an alternative to the famous tokamak device, pioneered by Soviet scientists in the 1950s. A stellarator and tokamak use huge magnets to suspend a floating mass of hydrogen plasma as it is heated to extreme temperatures so the atomic nuclei fuse releasing energy. The twisted structure of the stellarator is more complicated to design and build than a traditional tokamak but produces a more stable plasma that could enable scientists to sustain the fusion reaction for longer.
According to the director of the IPP branch in Greifswald, it can remain 25 years until the stellarator's commercial power. Currently, the fusion device produces more energy than the system itself consumes.
The total amount of the deal, in which, also, German fund UVC Partners, German public-private investment firm High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), and UK venture capital firm that supports entrepreneurial scientists Wilbe Group participated, amounted to €7M.
Based in Munich, Proxima Fusion was incorporated in January 2023. It is a spin-out of Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP). In Greifswald, where the branch of IPP is, government-funded scientists have been building a stellarator Wendelstein 7-X over the past 27 years. The total cost of research is to date €1,3B. Proxima Fusion was founded by former scientists and engineers from the Max Planck IPP, MIT, and Google-X Francesco Sciortino, Lucio Milanese, Jorrit Lion, Martin Kubie, and Jonathan Schilling.
Plural Platform is a €250 million early-stage venture fund started by Sten Tamkivi (founder of software company Teleport, acquired by Topia), Taavet Hinrikus (money transfer service Wise founder), @soundboy Ian Hogarth, and Khaled Helioui in 2022. It focuses on leading early-stage rounds between €1 and €10M. In 2023, it invested in British leg tech Robin AI, London-based AI technology Unitary, which moderates harmful content online, Danish healthtech Teton, and US asset-backed secured credit card Pesto.
