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The basics:

• Thea Energy raises $100M in Series B funding
• Company plans second North Jersey manufacturing facility
• Funding supports development of Eos stellarator project
• Startup targets commercial fusion power plants by decade’s end

After raising $100 million in Series B funding, Kearny-based fusion technology company Thea Energy Inc. is advancing its mission to deliver cost-competitive scalable fusion power plants with lower risks.

According to the startup’s May 27 announcement, the United States Innovative Technology Fund led financing with participation from General Innovation Capital Partners and Linse Capital.

Thea Energy aims to make fusion a commercially viable clean energy solution via its planar coil stellarator architecture. The company spun out of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Princeton University.

Rising star

Considered a rising player in the U.S. fusion space, the company has raised $130 million in total investor funding since its 2022 founding. It has also secured non-dilutive funding from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Thea Energy is currently collaborating with leading national labs, academic institutions and industrial partners to further its goal of providing an abundant and safe source of zero emission energy.

Thea Energy co-founder and CEO Brian Berzin said, “We built Thea Energy to take fusion out of the lab and onto the grid. Our architecture is simpler to manufacture, faster to construct, and more tolerant of real-world conditions compared to all other approaches. Commercial fusion requires adaptable, high-uptime power plants; this Series B accelerates that reality.”

According to Thea Energy, other investors in the oversubscribed round included:

• Calm Ventures
• Climate Capital
• Divergent Capital
• Emerald Technology Ventures
• Gaingels
• Idemitsu
• Kosan
• Overlay Capital
• Timescale Ventures
• Whatif Ventures

The company added that the following existing backers also participated:

• Alumni Ventures
• Hitachi Ventures
• Lowercarbon Capital
• Mercator Partners
• Orion Industrial Ventures
• Prelude Ventures
• Starlight Ventures

According to Thea, the newly raised funding will be used to expand its magnet manufacturing infrastructure, including the addition of a second facility in North Jersey.

The capital will also support the siting and construction of Eos. The large-scale integrated stellarator will create power plant relevant, steady-state fusion enabled by Thea Energy’s simplified architecture. Thea Energy plans to select a site for Eos later this year, as well as double its team to support this pivotal phase.

The company said it will also explore its ability to build fusion systems on shorter timescales and at lower costs.

Clean path forward

Additionally, Thea Energy reported progress toward starting construction of the first “Helios” power plant before the end of the decade.

The U.S. Department of Energy certified Thea Energy’s Helios pilot design earlier this year. The company noted it is already in discussions with over a dozen power offtakers, hyperscalers and utility partners interested in tapping into the scalable, high-availability source of fusion power.

Berzin said, “With the U.S. Department of Energy’s certification of our power plant preconceptual design milestone, proven magnet hardware, best-in-class team, and the capital now in place, we are on the path to delivering the first commercial stellarator power plants.”