Die größte Fusionierungsfinanzierung seit Jahresbeginn ist entstanden.

Back in Shanghai.

The investment sector has exclusively learned that StarRing Energy has officially completed a Series A financing round worth 1 billion yuan. The lead investors in this financing round were the Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Group, a subsidiary of the Shanghai State - owned Investment Corporation, and the Shanghai Future Industry Fund, along with CICC Capital and the Shanghai Jiading Science and Technology Investment Group. Other investors include BOC Assets, Morningstar Capital, Wuyuefeng Ventures, Longge Technology, Feitu Ventures, Shanghai Yankuang Assets of Shandong Energy, CIMC Envirotech, Shangrong Capital, Yuanhe Puhua, Shenwan Hongyuan, Binfu Capital, Zhenyi Assets and other institutions and individuals. The Shanghai Intellectual Property Fund, which led the Series Pre - A financing, has participated in this round again.

With this, the record for a single financing round of a private Chinese nuclear fusion company has been broken once again.

Born from the fusion laboratory of Tsinghua University, StarRing Energy is led by two classmates, Chen Rui and Tan Yi. They started their second entrepreneurial journey in 2021 and ventured into the field of controlled nuclear fusion. Since then, the company has become a remarkable name in the investment circle.

Nuclear fusion has always been regarded as the "ultimate energy source for humanity", and behind it lies a global energy transition. People are eager to know when the first kilowatt - hour of electricity will be generated through nuclear fusion.

Collaboration of Tsinghua Alumni

Largest Nuclear Fusion Financing at the Beginning of the Year

The story begins in a laboratory at Tsinghua University.

In 1999, two people born in the 1980s from Jiangxi and Hunan came to the Department of Engineering Physics at Tsinghua University together and became classmates. They are Chen Rui and Tan Yi. After obtaining his bachelor's degree, Tan Yi pursued a doctorate at the university and dedicated himself to nuclear fusion research. Later, he became a professor at the Department of Engineering Physics of Tsinghua University. Chen Rui studied abroad and returned to China in 2014 to become a professor at the School of Finance of the Central University of Finance and Economics.

Chen Rui, CEO of StarRing Energy (left), Tan Yi, Chief Scientist of StarRing Energy (right)

Their entrepreneurial journey actually started in 2016. At that time, foreign nuclear fusion companies began to emerge. Chen Rui and Tan Yi believed that the results of nuclear fusion research could bring greater benefits to society. Therefore, they founded ShuoCheng Technology together with another Tsinghua alumnus and applied fusion technologies in the industry for the first time.

In 2021, there was a turning point. The American nuclear fusion company Helion Energy announced that it had heated plasma to 100 million degrees Celsius, while Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) received $1.8 billion in financing. This made nuclear fusion a hot topic in the investment circle again.

At this time, Chen Rui and Tan Yi felt that the time was right. After their first entrepreneurial attempt, they had well - prepared the commercial technology for nuclear fusion. After much consideration, StarRing Energy was officially founded in October 2021, with Chen Rui as the CEO and Tan Yi as the Chief Scientist.

Chen Rui recalled to the investment sector that the financing boom in the foreign nuclear fusion industry made him and his team realize that this research requires a large amount of capital and that it is difficult to achieve groundbreaking results with only laboratory resources. "We knew clearly that we had to make a decision if we didn't want to miss the opportunity."

StarRing Energy built its team around the nuclear fusion group of the Department of Engineering Physics at Tsinghua University. The size of the R & D team has expanded from the initial 10 people to over 140 people, of which over 70% have master's or doctoral degrees. StarRing Energy's technology is based on the compact, repeatable reconnection fusion technology of the spherical tokamak. Compared with the traditional tokamak, this concept has the advantage of being smaller and simpler in structure, which can significantly reduce the construction cost of the fusion reactor.

The SUNIST - 2 device jointly built by StarRing Energy and Tsinghua University

In particular, this concept can not only be used in large - scale fusion power plants and distributed power plants, but also, due to its compact and simple structure, in offshore or deep - sea operation platforms and propulsion systems of large ships where a high integration density is required.

Chen Rui calculated for the investment sector that the cost of the next - generation device to achieve a Q - value (energy amplification factor) of > 1 would be about 1.5 billion yuan, which is far lower than the cost of the traditional large - scale tokamak approach.

Nevertheless, Chen Rui also admitted that StarRing Energy has faced various unknown challenges from day one. "Since we are taking a path that no one has ever taken, we often couldn't predict the problems. We had to rely on our experience to identify the problems and solve them from a technical perspective."

He clearly remembered that more than two years ago, when the current device of StarRing Energy (SUNIST - 2, in cooperation with Tsinghua University) was first put into operation, usually 18 magnets were connected in series, but the calculated resistances did not match. If one used the standard method to measure and check each magnet individually, one would have to disassemble the device, which would delay the construction schedule by at least ten days. Finally, the team used a brilliant physical method to identify the exact location of the short - circuit and found that the cause of the short - circuit was an indium flake as small as a nail head that had fallen into the device during soldering.

Today, StarRing Energy is increasingly showing self - financing capabilities. According to Chen Rui, StarRing Energy has developed and improved a variety of technologies around the fusion reactor and uses industrialization as a delivery condition for all internal projects to promote the transformation of research results into products.

So far, a comprehensive product portfolio for signal conditioning has been developed, including high - bandwidth isolation amplifiers and analog integrators. The superconducting data acquisition device (EPIC) and the single - channel data acquisition device (CoaxLink Nano) support precise measurements in extreme multi - phase fields and flexible arrangements to provide a reliable data basis for digital fusion reactors and AI control. The polar magnetic pulse power supply system and the universal pulse power supply system module (IVCube) together form a comprehensive solution for pulse power supplies, which supports mass arrangements and complex controls and provides cost - effective drive solutions for fusion devices. The self - developed in - situ surface analysis system (LIBS) and the electrostatic probe drive system are not only used in fusion research but also have attracted wide interest in the nuclear energy, aerospace and high - energy physics industries and have entered into several cooperation agreements. The capabilities in the field of high - temperature superconducting magnets have gone beyond the company's boundaries and reached several development and processing agreements with customers.

Regarding StarRing Energy's plan, Chen Rui said that by 2028, the technical validation will be completed and the construction of a commercial demonstration reactor will start. By 2032, a fusion reactor that can produce electricity will be built.

Currently, the team is constantly striving towards this goal. As Tan Yi called for earlier, fusion researchers should not wait until all conditions are perfect but bravely put things into practice. "All children learn to walk before their muscles are strong and their balance is stable. Similarly, in nuclear fusion, we should solve problems in the iteration and gain experience in construction."

Gathering of VC/PE

Strong Investments from Shanghai State - owned Asset Management Companies

StarRing Energy, which has gradually established itself in the industry, soon caught the attention of investors.

In June 2022, StarRing Energy announced that it had received angel financing worth hundreds of millions of yuan. The investors were Shunwei Capital, Kunlun Capital, Zhongke Chuangxing, Vision Plus Capital, Harvest Capital, Sequoia China Seed Fund, Xianfeng Changqing, Jiuhe Ventures, Lenovo Star, Innoangel Fund, Yuanhe Origin Capital and Huafang Capital.

Recalling the first financing round, Chen Rui said that although "the beginning of everything is difficult", the angel financing went relatively smoothly. "It actually only took five months from the first contact with the investors to the completion of the angel financing, even though the Chinese New Year fell during this period."

He remembered that although StarRing Energy was still a young company at that time, the team had rich research experience and the company valuation was relatively realistic, which convinced the investors. At the same time, StarRing Energy benefited from the industry enthusiasm triggered by the large - scale financing of the American company CFS, which provided a reference for the investors.

Among these investors, Zhongke Chuangxing's investment in StarRing Energy was particularly impressive. Chen Rui clearly remembered that it was in March 2022 when he met the founding partner Mi Lei at the Beijing offices of Zhongke Chuangxing. "Dr. Mi told me that he had long wanted to invest in a company in the field of controlled nuclear fusion and had conducted in - depth research on the entire industry chain before choosing us. This immediately gave me a sense of trust." So, after a single meeting, Zhongke Chuangxing became one of the angel investors of StarRing Energy and also participated in the Series Pre - A financing again.

Mi Lei told the investment sector that Zhongke Chuangxing's continuous investments are not only due to the technical concept and the uniqueness of StarRing Energy but also a strategic choice of Zhongke Chuangxing in the hard - tech ecosystem to establish the "future energy". "The rapid iteration of StarRing Energy, from the principle validation from '0 to 1' to the future construction of the CTRFR - 1 device, exactly confirms my idea that 'hard - tech requires patient capital but also rapid technical iterations'."

Nevertheless, Chen Rui admitted that each subsequent financing round of StarRing Energy was more difficult than the angel financing. The longer the company existed, the more the investors would question StarRing Energy's original plans and their expectations would become higher and higher. "We can only fulfill our promises and dispel the doubts with actual progress."

In March 2024, StarRing Energy completed a Series Pre - A financing round worth hundreds of millions of yuan. The financing was led by the Shanghai Intellectual Property Fund, followed by Huacheng Ventures. The old shareholders Zhongke Chuangxing and Harvest Capital also continued to invest.

With the current Series A financing, a remarkable moment in the industry has been reached - the record for a single financing round of a private Chinese nuclear fusion company has been broken again.

As one of the leading investors in this round, the Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Group said that the group has long focused on hard - tech and future industries. After the Shanghai Intellectual Property Fund, a subsidiary of the group, led the Series Pre - A financing of StarRing Energy in 2024, the group led the financing in this round again and promoted the establishment of StarRing Energy in Shanghai. The group could observe that StarRing Energy has become a leading company in controlled nuclear fusion in China, with comprehensive capabilities in self - development, technical implementation and rapid iteration. This has further strengthened the group's determination to support the company in overcoming the technological challenges of the "artificial sun".

"In the future, the Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Group will fully utilize its strengths as 'patient capital, long - term capital and strategic capital' and its industry cooperation capabilities and, together with StarRing Energy and other industry partners, accelerate the transition from 'scientific experimentation' to 'commercial application' of nuclear fusion to make Shanghai a global high - ground for the energy industry."

The investment company CICC Capital, represented by the CICC SAIC Fund, also said that it highly values the potential of controlled nuclear fusion as a strategic emerging industry in China's 15th Five - Year Plan. "StarRing Energy has outstanding technical advantages in the high - temperature superconducting magnetic field technology of the spherical tokamak. Thanks to the more than 20 - year experience of the nuclear fusion team at Tsinghua University, the company has successfully built and validated several fusion experimental devices, with the core indicators leading at the national and international levels."

The Shanghai Jiading Science and Technology Investment Group, as the investment platform for innovation in the Jiading region, has planned its investments around the "3+3+1" key industries in Jiading, with the future energy industry being one of the focus areas. In its view, the team of StarRing Energy in controlled nuclear fusion has a strong technical foundation, a clear technical plan and strong implementation capabilities and has developed into a leading company in commercial nuclear fusion in China. "Currently, the Jiading region is striving to build a 'fusion city'. The establishment of StarRing Energy in Jiading is an important step in creating an industry ecosystem. In the future, we will continue to support the company in technological development and commercialization."

With this new financing led by the state - owned asset management companies in Shanghai, StarRing Energy has officially integrated into Shanghai's future industry planning.

It is known that StarRing Energy has entered into an important strategic partnership with the government of the Jiading region in Shanghai to promote the research, development and commercialization of the CTRFR - 1 fusion device. According to the agreement, the company...