MADISON, Wis.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Type One Energy announced today the close of an over-subscribed $29 million financing round. This effort launches the company’s ambitious, partner-rich and capital-efficient FusionDirect program to commercialize its stellarator fusion technology.
Type One Energy’s technical foundations provide a powerful springboard to achieve its mission. Founded by several of the world’s leading stellarator experts, Type One Energy also brings concentrated experience from renowned fusion science institutions, including the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the U.S., the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Germany and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for its work on advanced magnet technology. The stellarator is a fusion technology characterized by inherently stable and steady-state operations. Related to tokamaks, stellarators do not, however, require massive circulating electric currents to assist in creating the magnetic fields used to confine their fusion plasma. This makes stellarator technology less physically complex and easier to translate into a practical fusion power plant.
Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), TDK Ventures and Doral Energy Tech Ventures co-led the round with additional cleantech investment from Darco, the Grantham Foundation, MILFAM, Orbia Ventures, Shorewind Capital, TRIREC, VAHOCA and others.
The company’s unique FusionDirect commercialization program takes advantage of recent important breakthroughs to pursue a lowest-risk, shortest-schedule pathway to fusion energy. Improvements in stellarator fusion performance and plasma science work together with technical innovations in high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnet technology and advanced manufacturing to spark Type One Energy’s launch of FusionDirect.
Type One’s commercialization program is being executed through a set of global partnerships with leading fusion science and technology research institutions, universities and industrial companies. These partnerships reflect the career-long collaborative relationships which the company’s industry-recognized technical leaders bring to Type One Energy. This technical leadership team includes Chief Technology Officer Dr. Thomas Sunn Pedersen, Chief Science Officer Dr. John Canik, Chief Engineer Dr. David Anderson, and Head of Stellarator Plasma Science Dr. Chris Hegna.
“Fusion is the ultimate energy source, and its successful commercialization will be a huge leap towards achieving clean and abundant energy for everyone,” said Carmichael Roberts, Breakthrough Energy Ventures. “Advances in stellarator science, including Type One Energy’s ability to execute a stellarator development project, provide the basis for a very exciting and promising path to practical fusion on the grid in the coming decades.”
With this announcement, the company will onboard former Breakthrough Energy Ventures’ (BEV) Senior Advisor on Fusion, Christofer Mowry, to serve as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). “Type One Energy represents a special opportunity. This team’s knowledge and credibility gives Type One the unique ability to effectively integrate recent global advances in stellarator-relevant technology and to deliver a fusion power plant without another costly, large-scale, science validation machine,” stated Type One Energy Group CEO Christofer Mowry. Previously, Mowry held the CEO position at General Fusion, where he scaled up the company and raised over $200M in private investment and government support from three countries.
“The science basis for stellarators has taken major leaps forward in the past several years. Through a combination of experimental demonstrations and the use of high-performance computing, the stage is set for the development of power plant scale machines,” said Dennis Whyte, Director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center. “We look forward to collaborating with Type One Energy to realize the advantages of HTS high-field fusion magnets to their stellarator technology.”
“The world will need a source of high energy density low-carbon power in the coming decades to achieve energy transition and decarbonization. Among several startups that we have evaluated, Type One Energy is on a credible accelerated trajectory to commercialize a steady-state baseload fusion power plant. TDK Ventures is excited to back this highly accomplished leadership team,” said Tina Tosukhowong, Investment Director at TDK Ventures.
About Type One Energy Group
Type One Energy Group is mission-driven to provide sustainable, affordable fusion power to the world. The company was formed in 2019 by a team of globally-recognized fusion scientists with a strong track record of building state-of-art stellarator fusion machines, together with veteran business leaders experienced in successfully scaling companies and commercializing energy technologies. Type One Energy applies proven advanced manufacturing methods, modern computational physics and high-field superconducting magnets to develop its optimized stellarator fusion energy system. Its FusionDirect development program pursues the lowest-risk, shortest-schedule path to a fusion power plant over the coming decade, using a partner-intensive and capital-efficient strategy. For more information, visit https://www.typeoneenergy.com/.
About Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV)
Founded by Bill Gates and backed by many of the world’s top business leaders, BEV has raised more than $2 billion in committed capital to support cutting-edge companies that are leading the world to net-zero emissions. BEV is a purpose-built investment firm that is seeking to invest, launch and scale global companies that will eliminate GHG emissions throughout the economy as soon as possible. BEV seeks true breakthroughs and is committed to supporting these entrepreneurs and companies by bringing to bear a unique combination of technical, operational, market and policy expertise.
BEV is a part of Breakthrough Energy, a network of investment vehicles, philanthropic programs, policy advocacy and other activities committed to scaling the technologies we need to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Visit www.breakthroughenergy.org to learn more.
