Funding: who pays, for what workflow
Investors are paying Marvel Fusion to turn fusion from a long-horizon science project into an energy infrastructure workflow: design, test and industrialise a repeatable laser-and-target system that can deliver reliable, zero-carbon baseload electricity. The pain being removed is the mismatch between rising power demand and the limits of 100% renewables in grid stability and round-the-clock supply for energy-intensive industry.
The deal
Marvel Fusion has raised EUR 50 million in funding, according to a roundup of major European deeptech deals. The investor was not disclosed in the source.
While terms and valuation were not provided, the raise continues a broader, with-trend pattern: fusion ventures are attracting larger private rounds as governments and corporates look for credible pathways to firm clean power.
What Marvel Fusion is building
Marvel Fusion is developing laser-driven inertial fusion using short-pulsed high-intensity lasers and nanostructured fuel targets designed to increase the efficiency of fusion reactions. The company’s approach is notably non-thermal and based on proton-boron11 (pB11) fuel.
That pB11 choice matters commercially. It is aneutronic and non-radioactive, positioning the concept as a route to cleaner operational profiles than approaches that generate significant neutron flux. If the physics and engineering scale, the end product is straightforward to describe to customers: dependable, zero-carbon electricity without the intermittency constraints of renewables.
Timeline signals and execution risk
Marvel Fusion’s published plan includes:
- A demonstration facility by 2027
- A 100 MW pilot power plant by 2033
For buyers of electricity, these milestones are the difference between “interesting R&D” and “bankable capacity.” For investors, they set a clear gating structure: capital is funding specific engineering outcomes and validation steps, not just lab progress.
Fusion timelines are long and execution risk remains high, but that is exactly why capital concentration is increasing around teams that can credibly assemble the industrial stack: laser technology, target manufacturing, systems integration, and safety/regulatory pathways.
Market signal: fusion funding is moving from narrative to industrialisation
This EUR 50 million raise lands amid a wider wave of European deeptech financing and growing global urgency around clean, firm power. Private investment is rising as energy systems face two pressures at once: electrification demand growth and the operational challenges of grids with high renewables penetration.
Marvel Fusion’s momentum also shows up in external validation. The company has cited support and partnerships across public and industrial stakeholders, including SPRIND, Siemens Energy, Thales, and U.S. Department of Energy awards. It has also been recognised under EIC STEP Scale Up and received a DOE INFUSE award in 2025. These signals do not de-risk the core technology, but they do matter for go-to-market credibility, talent recruitment, and access to testing and industrial partners.
The company has also been described as the best-funded laser-based fusion company globally by March 2025, reflecting strong investor appetite for differentiated fusion approaches.
Commercial lens: what drives retention and pricing power (if it works)
Fusion is not a typical software category, but the commercial dynamics still map to switching costs and expansion.
- High switching costs are structural. Once a grid operator, industrial customer, or national programme commits to a fusion pathway, the ecosystem of engineering, permitting, and supply chain becomes difficult to unwind.
- Pricing power would come from delivering firm capacity where alternatives are costly: peaker plants, overbuild plus storage, or constrained nuclear buildouts. The value proposition strengthens in markets with high volatility and capacity tightness.
- Implementation depth is the product. Marvel Fusion’s differentiation is not a single component but an integrated system (lasers, targets, control, energy conversion) that must be manufactured and run reliably.
This round is therefore best read as capital to push further down the industrialisation path. Likely focus areas (inference) include scaling engineering teams, expanding partnerships for laser and target supply chains, and funding the infrastructure needed to hit the 2027 demonstration milestone.
What this enables
- Faster progress toward a 2027 demonstration facility with sufficient engineering depth and test capacity
- More credibility with industrial partners that care about manufacturability and operational reliability
- Continued positioning as a leading European fusion contender as private capital accelerates into the sector
What to watch
- Whether Marvel Fusion discloses additional details on investors and strategic partners tied to manufacturing and energy conversion
- Technical milestones that indicate repeatability, efficiency, and pathway to net-positive energy output
- Evidence of an industrial supply chain for high-intensity lasers and nanostructured targets at scale
- How the company frames siting, permitting, and grid integration ahead of the 2033 pilot plant goal