Canada’s General Fusion has closed additional financing in support of its Fusion Demonstration Plant (FDP) programme.
The new financing includes two globally recognised institutional investors, led by GIC, together with the deep technology fund IBX, in a significant expansion of institutional support for the company, General Fusion said. The financing, the terms of which were undisclosed, comes as the company accelerates execution of its fusion commercialisation programme toward power plant scale validation over the next five years.
GIC is a sovereign wealth fund established by the government of Singapore. Their participation in this General Fusion financing round is complemented by funding from another large financial institution based in Asia. General Fusion said: “Collectively, these new investments solidify the Company’s already strong support from Asia and represent a significant move by the company to address the growing fusion market opportunity in the region. They provide General Fusion partners with whom the Company can collaborate to engage in Asian climate change and sustainability policy implementation, as well as energy market decarbonization initiatives.”
CEO Christofer Mowry said: “The company’s ability to attract two more globally recognized institutional investors as strong complements to both Temasek and Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) in this financing round gives General Fusion an incredibly strong funding base to execute our commercialisation programme.”
General Fusion was established in 2002 and is funded by a global syndicate of energy venture capital firms, industry leaders, and technology pioneers. The new investors join an international financing base that includes Temasek, BDC, Hatch, the DLF Group, Gimv, I2BF Global Ventures, DTA, Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital, Bezos Expeditions, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, Braemar Energy Ventures, Entrepreneurs Fund, SET Ventures, and several individual impact investors. VAHOCA, based in Singapore, provided significant advisory support and assistance in this financing.
In December 2019 General Fusion said it had secured more than $100m of financing for its fusion programme. That funding comprised $65m of equity financing led by Singapore-based investment company Temasek, as well as CAD50m ($38m) in additional investment from Canada’s Strategic Innovation Fund.
The company is developing a magnetised target fusion reactor system, which uses a sphere filled with molten lead-lithium that is pumped to form a vortex. A pulse of magnetically-confined plasma fuel is then injected into the vortex. Around the sphere, pistons drive a pressure wave into the centre of the sphere, compressing the plasma to fusion conditions. This process is then repeated, while the heat from the reaction is captured in the liquid metal and used to generate electricity via a steam turbine.
