Munich-based Proxima Fusion today announced a €411 million ($468 million) financing round, bringing the company’s valuation to €2.4 billion ($2.7 billion) and establishing Proxima as one of the best-funded fusion companies in Europe.
The round was led by XTX Ventures and East X Ventures, with RWE and Google as strategic investors. KfW Capital, SPRIND and Burda Principal Investments joined the round alongside returning investors including Plural, UVC Partners, Balderton, Cherry Ventures, DST Global Partners, Brevan Howard Macro Venture, Lightspeed, DTCF, redalpine, Leitmotif, Elaia, CDP Venture Capital, Bayern Kapital, and the EIC Fund.
“Europe is racing with the United States and China to get to the first fusion power plant. 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,” says Dr. Francesco Sciortino, co-founder and CEO of Proxima Fusion.
Proxima Fusion’s financing follows a 2026 funding environment in which EU-Startups has seen no other pure fusion funding round, but has covered at least €280 million in adjacent advanced-energy, storage, grid-flexibility, industrial-heat, geothermal and materials DeepTech financing.
German comparators include Munich-based alqem, Entrix, encosa and Telura, as well as Berlin-based GALVANY, indicating continued domestic activity around energy infrastructure and enabling technologies.
Across Europe, relevant 2026 examples include RIFT’s €113.8 million industrial-heat financing in the Netherlands, Exergy3’s €11.4 million thermal storage Seed round in the UK, Hybrid Greentech’s over €15 million grid-flexibility investment in Denmark, and Gaussion’s €24.5 million battery-intelligence raise in London.
Including Proxima’s new round, the funding across this fusion and adjacent advanced-energy context amounts to approximately €691 million.
EU-Startups has previously covered Proxima Fusion’s 2023 €7 million pre-Seed, 2024’s €20 million Seed, and 2025’s €130 million Series A, giving the company an established funding history within the publication’s European fusion coverage.
“Fusion is one of the most important technologies humanity can build, delivering safe, clean, abundant energy – and for Europe, real energy independence. But inventing breakthrough science isn’t enough: Europe needs to build globally competitive companies around it. That’s what we’re here to do,” said the company in a public statement.
Founded in 2020, Proxima Fusion is a leading stellarator company and the first spin-out from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics. The company is developing commercial fusion power plants based on the QI-HTS stellarator concept, building on the scientific breakthroughs of the Wendelstein 7-X programme.
Today’s financing provides the backing needed to build Alpha, Proxima’s net-energy stellarator demonstrator near Munich. Alpha is described by the company as the critical bridge between decades of fusion research and commercial deployment. L
ed by Proxima in partnership with the state of Bavaria, the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics and RWE, the project aims to validate key technologies and accelerate the development of the world’s first fusion power plant later that decade.
With Alpha, Proxima is developing a net-energy fusion demonstrator targeted for the early 2030s, paving the way for Stellaris, the world’s first commercial stellarator fusion power plant later that decade.
This ambition is supported by the Alpha Alliance, a consortium of more than 50 industrial partners, and an Industrial Development Board.
In less than three years, Proxima has secured more than €650 million ($740 million), including €95 million in public grants. Just three months after signing its Memorandum of Understanding with the Free State of Bavaria, RWE and the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Proxima completed this €411 million financing round.
The round exceeded its target of matching Bavaria’s commitment for €400 million public funding contribution to the company’s roadmap.
German energy company RWE became an investor just months after signing an agreement with Proxima to partner on building the first stellarator fusion power plant on the site of a former nuclear fission power plant in Gundremmingen, Bavaria.
With this financing, Proxima’s focus will be on completion of the Stellarator Model Coil, expansion of high-temperature superconducting (HTS) cable and magnet production, and continued development of the engineering and manufacturing systems required for stellarators.
The company will also hiring across engineering, manufacturing and operations to accelerate progress.
Today’s announcement marks of the largest private investments in European technology this year – and the largest ever in European fusion – reflecting growing recognition of fusion power as a strategic technology for energy security, economic resilience and industrial competitiveness.
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2026/07/largest-european-fusion-investment-on-record-sees-proxima-fusion-raise-e411-million/
