The government has announced it will invest £20 million to kickstart ‘Starmaker One’, a British private fusion investment fund aimed at helping start-ups in the sector commercialise. The government is a cornerstone investor in this limited partnership, which DESNZ says has potential to reach between £100 million and £150 million with further investment from the private sector.
DESNZ says companies in the UK identify lack of access to capital as a barrier to scaling up and commercialising their businesses and the cash from government will “give the private sector confidence to invest in fusion”.
The funding boost will help small fusion companies provide training for their workforce in key areas such as physics, engineering and chemistry. It will also support companies to develop technologies and capitalise on the opportunities of fusion energy in markets such as magnetics, industrial AI, robotics, healthcare, transportation and energy storage.
East X Ventures, the venture capital arm of East X, a London based quantitative systematic research and investment firm operating across global commodity markets, will act as fund manager.
The funding comes from the government’s existing Research and Development budget for 2024/2025 and government will receive a share of any returns made by the partnership.