Investors are reportedly pushing the company to go public as the race for fusion energy intensifies.
Last month, Richmond, British Columbia General Fusion The company has quietly secured another C$51.5 million in funding, according to a securities filing with Canadian regulators dated Nov. 27.
Almost $51.1 million of this amount was raised through simple future equity (SAFE) agreements, with the remainder coming in the form of warrants to purchase common shares. Sixty-seven unknown investors from across British Columbia, the United States and five other countries participated in the financing.
General Fusion is part of the global race for commercially viable fusion energy. This round, first reported Globe and mail and confirmed by BetaKit, this is the company's second capital injection in four months after avoiding a cash flow deficit in early 2025.
The funding round marks the company's second capital injection in four months, after averting a cash crunch in early 2025.
In May General Fusion reduced staff and reduced its activities amid problems with fundraising. In August of this year, General Fusion public call for investment was answered when the company closed $30 millionmostly from existing backers, as part of a pay-to-play deal that allowed it to resume promoting its LM26 fusion demonstration program.
This year, rival fusion developers such as Germany's Proxima Fusion and America's Commonwealth Fusion Systems and TAE Technologies have announced deals worth nine figures in US dollars.
According to The Globe, General Fusion's existing backer PenderFund, which also participated in its August financing, invested $5 million through SAFE in the company's latest round with the expectation that General Fusion will look to go public as soon as possible and capitalize on the current interest in nuclear space, perhaps by merging with a special purpose acquisition company, the route of its Canadian deep-tech counterpart. Xanadu I recently picked it up
BetaKit has reached out to General Fusion and PenderFund for comment on why the company closed this round, how far this capital will take its mission, and when it intends to go public.
CONNECTED: General Fusion Averts Funding Crisis with C$30 Million to Boost Search for Commercial Fusion Energy
Founded in 2002 by physicist Michel Laberge, General Fusion aims to develop a commercially viable approach to zero-carbon fusion energy production to help meet global clean energy needs. Many players from all over the world take part in the tournament. global race for synthesisfrom national laboratories to academic institutions and private companies.
Nuclear fusion is the physical process that powers the Sun and stars. As the world strives to meet growing energy needs and move away from fossil fuels, there is a push to exploit them as a commercial energy source as they offer the promise of abundant, carbon-free energy and can bring significant economic, geopolitical and environmental benefits to businesses, countries and consumers.
“In the long term, the world will run on fusion,” General Fusion CEO Greg Twinney told BetaKit in an interview back in May.
It took a lot of time and money to get there. The round appears to bring the 23-year-old company's total funding to nearly $600 million, including support from private backers as well as the federal and British Columbia governments.
In March, General Fusion took an important step towards its ultimate goal, Creation its first magnetized plasma in LM26, which is necessary for nuclear fusion reactions. The next major technical milestone General Fusion is targeting is the demonstration of nuclear fusion at 10 million degrees Celsius, spokeswoman Danielle Johnson said. previously told BetaKit that the company's August funding will help it achieve this.
General Fusion will likely need more money to reach the 100 million degree mark and “scientific breakeven conditions,” or the point where its LM26 fusion demonstrator is capable of producing an amount of energy equal to that which it consumes. The fusion energy developer ultimately hopes to deploy the first commercial power plant based on its Magnetized Target Fusion technology by the mid-2030s.
Image courtesy of General Fusion.
