P R E F A C E
Shaanxi Startorus Fusion Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as " Startorus Fusion") announced the completion of a multi-million Yuan Pre-A round financing recently. The round was led by Shanghai Intellectual Property Fund, with follow-on investment from HuaCheng Venture Capital and continued participation from existing shareholders, CASSTAR and MSA Capital. The funds will primarily be used for the design, research, and construction of Startorus Fusion's next-generation fusion verification device.
Startorus Fusion adopts the magnetic reconnection heating spherical tokamak scheme, which reduces the complexity of heating and current-driven devices, significantly lowering the complexity of fusion reactors while improving tritium breeding rates. It is a fusion energy technology pathway that demonstrates clear cost advantages in the future energy market. The company has currently validated the magnetic reconnection heating scheme on its first fusion device, SUNIST-2, jointly developed with Tsinghua University, and has observed significant effects of magnetic reconnection heating plasma.
Controlled nuclear fusion power, as a clean energy technology, possesses advantages such as high energy density, wide availability of resources, and superior safety compared to fission power. It can serve as a cornerstone energy source to replace fossil fuels in society and is an ideal pathway towards achieving carbon neutrality.
As early as the 1990s, the Joint European Torus (JET) successfully achieved controlled nuclear fusion and generated fusion power at the 10 MW level. Since then, humanity has embarked on the engineering exploration of controlled nuclear fusion power. Starting from 2020, numerous fusion energy startups worldwide have received significantly more venture capital than the cumulative historical funding, marking a new era in the commercial development of fusion energy. According to the Fusion Industry Association (FIA) statistics, currently, four commercial fusion companies are planning to generate electricity before 2030.
Countries around the world, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan, have successively introduced a series of fusion policy documents to support the development of fusion technology within their respective countries in recent years. China has also increased policy support for controlled nuclear fusion. In January 2024, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences jointly issued the "Implementation Opinions on Promoting the Development of Future Industry Innovation", in which clearly states the focus on key areas such as nuclear power, nuclear fusion, hydrogen energy, and biomass energy, aiming to build a complete chain of future energy equipment encompassing "collection, storage, transportation, and application".
Founded in 2021, Startorus Fusion is composed of core members who are all graduates of the Department of Engineering Physics at Tsinghua University. They accumulated over 20 years of experience in controlled fusion research, enabling them one of the top teams in China engaged in systematic fusion energy development. Building upon the foundation of high-temperature superconducting spherical tokamaks, the founding team has innovatively proposed a compact, repetitive, and reconnection fusion reactor scheme characterized by multiple-pulse operation and self-generated magnetic field reconnection heating of the plasma. It is expected to achieve efficient, stable, and cost-effective fusion energy output within a relatively compact size.
In June 2022, Startorus Fusion received a multi-million Yuan angel round financing led by Shunwei Capital, Kunlun Capital, CASSTAR, Telescope Investment, MSA Capital, HongShan Seed Fund, K2VC, Unity Venture Capital, Legend Star, Innoangel Fund, and Current Venture Capital, among other well-known institutions.
Startorus Fusion is currently in the process of designing the next-generation fusion verification device, CTRFR-1, a device that will utilize high-temperature superconducting magnets to confine the plasma and employ magnetic reconnection heating to raise the plasma temperature to 100 million degrees, achieving fusion conditions and fully verifying Startorus Fusion's fusion scheme. It is projected that by 2027, the company will commence the construction of a commercial demonstration device, with the potential to showcase commercial fusion power output based on its unique approach around the year 2030.
STARTORUS FUSION·CEO ChenRui
We will continue to upgrade the existing devices to conduct preliminary research for CTRFR-1. The company will further expand its team, particularly by establishing a comprehensive high-temperature superconducting team. Following the approach of "operating one generation, constructing one generation, and conducting preliminary research for one generation", we will iterate rapidly in small steps, aiming to swiftly achieve the engineering goals of CTRFR-1 according to the plan.
Shanhai Intellectual Property Fund
This investment in Startorus Fusion marks our second strategic deployment in the field of controlled nuclear fusion. Prior to this, we invested in Shanghai Superconductor. The development of the industry chain requires breakthroughs in upstream materials and strong leaders within the chain. Both Startorus Fusion and Shanghai Superconductor are excellent companies that have successfully transformed academic technological achievements into commercial enterprises. They possess strong research and development capabilities and have demonstrated outstanding engineering capabilities. We believe that with their perseverance, the field of controlled nuclear fusion will witness the emergence of more exceptional companies in the future. These companies will contribute to the development of China's new energy industry and strive to achieve the pinnacle of human energy resources.
HuaCheng Venture Capital
In just a few short years since its establishment in 2021, the Startorus Fusion team has achieved remarkable accomplishments in industrialization. Huacheng Venture Capital is delighted to have the opportunity to invest in such a hardcore technology-driven enterprise like Startorus Fusion. We are excited to accompany the entrepreneurial team on the path of contributing to China's industrial development and making contributions to the advancement of human civilization!
CASSTAR
Startorus Fusion is a key strategic investment project in the ultimate energy field for CASSTAR. We highly recognize the company's industry accumulation and technological advantages, which is why we invested in the company's angel round in 2022. Our additional investment in this round is due to the team's demonstrated high execution capability and outstanding research and development progress, surpassing expectations in terms of technical parameters. We continue to have a positive outlook on the future development of the Startorus Fusion team and look forward to their faster realization of commercialized fusion energy.
MSA Capital
We have always been committed to supporting technologies and companies with original disruptive innovations, and controlled nuclear fusion holds tremendous potential for changing the future energy landscape. Since our previous investment, Startorus Fusion has achieved significant technological breakthroughs, rapidly completed device construction, and validated the team's patented magnetic reconnection heating technology. We look forward to witnessing more milestones together with the team.
