SA国际传媒

(CFS), an MIT spinoff focused on commercializing fusion energy, announced this morning it has raised $84 million in the second tranche of a Series A round.

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led the new financing, which brings the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company鈥檚 total funding to $200 million since its 2018 inception. The company鈥檚 first tranche of the series A, , closed last June 鈥� it鈥檚 worth noting that both tranches are unusually large sums for a Series A round.

New investors and also participated in the A2 round as well as current backers , , , , , , , , , and others.

The company declined to disclose at which valuation this money was raised.

The details

Now I won鈥檛 sit here and pretend to understand exactly what CFS does. I did look up fusion energy and according to the it is basically 鈥渢he energy source of the sun and stars.鈥� Plus, scientists seem to think it has 鈥渢he potential to provide virtually limitless carbon-free electricity.鈥�

I can also tell you what CFS says it does. And that includes working on developing high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets and designing and building 鈥渢he world鈥檚 first net-energy-gain fusion system,鈥� called SPARC.

Both projects are on schedule and below budget, and are aimed at helping solve climate change, according to the company.

CFS currently has 55 employees, up from 25 employees last June at the time of its last raise. It notes that it is “actively hiring many new roles right now.”

Looking ahead

CFS plans to use its new capital to continue to grow its capabilities to offer fusion power plants, fusion engineering services, and HTS magnets. It will also continue to build out SPARC, its new headquarters and its manufacturing facilities. The startup also plans to focus on business development around its HTS magnets, which it says are a key component to SPARC but also have various other commercial uses.

In a statement, Equnior鈥檚 CTO Sophie Hildebrand noted that CFS offers 鈥減romising and potentially game-changing zero-carbon energy technologies.鈥�

Meanwhile, Future Ventures Founder Steve Jurvetson describes fusion energy as 鈥渁n investment in our future that offers an important path toward combating climate change.鈥�

MIT鈥檚 Plasma Science and Fusion Center is collaborating with CFS to design and build its SPARC system. This includes the development of the HTS magnets which CFS says will allow it to build 鈥渟ignificantly smaller and lower-cost fusion power plants.鈥�

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