New funding will help the startup progress its innovative inertial confinement fusion approach towards commercial viability.
Fusion power holds immense potential as an almost limitless source of clean energy, but bringing it to market faces major technical challenges. Marvel Fusion is one company developing a novel laser-driven method that it believes can help make fusion power a reality sooner. The Colorado-based startup announced this week that it has raised $70 million in a Series B funding round to further advance its technology.
Instead of using enormous magnetic facilities to contain a fusion reaction as many other projects pursue, Marvel Fusion aims to use ultra-fast lasers to initiate tiny fusion explosions in a target material. This inertial confinement fusion approach was successfully demonstrated on a large scale at the National Ignition Facility. However, Marvel believes newer laser technologies and optimizing target materials can help scale the process for commercial applications.
With its new funding, the company plans to build a demonstration facility in collaboration with Colorado State University. There, a pair of 100-joule lasers will fire over 10 times per second at nanoscale targets made from widely available silicon. By early 2027, Marvel hopes this initial setup will validate key aspects of its laser and target designs.
Looking further ahead, Marvel’s goal is to develop a first-of-its-kind full-scale prototype in the early 2030s. Housing 10 to 20 lasers firing 2 kilojoules each 10 times per second, this system aims to efficiently generate useful amounts of fusion energy. Its success would mark a major step towards making fusion power generation a viable reality.
The $70 million round was led by HV Capital, and also included contributions from b2venture, BayernKapital, Deutsche Telekom, SPRIND and Tenglemann Ventures. This funding will accelerate Marvel Fusion’s progress developing its novel approach to delivering one of humanity’s holy grails – an unlimited, carbon-free source of energy based on the same process that powers the sun and stars. Its results will be closely watched by the global fusion community.