Thea Energy: Unveiling the Power of the Future
At Hitachi Ventures we back visionary companies addressing the multifaceted challenges of our energy future. We are thrilled to announce our Series A investment into Thea Energy, a Princeton spin-out that is building an optimized fusion stellarator design.
The $20M Series A was led by Prelude Ventures, and supported by other investors including 11.2 Capital, Anglo American, Lowercarbon Capital, Mercator Partners, Orion Industrial Ventures, and Starlight Ventures. The funds will be used to build full-scale planar magnet array, finalize the intermediate Eos plant simulation and design, expand the IP family and build a world-class team.
Thea’s Unfair Advantage
At Hitachi Ventures we believe that we are currently seeing a next generation of companies in the fusion space that have the luxury to think beyond Q>1 (more on this to come). Next to the promise of commercial feasibility and economical viability, this generation also materializes long-term steady state energy production and as such, the much-needed sustainable baseload. Within that wave comes our first investment in fusion — Thea Energy.
Thea Energy (derived from Greek mythology — the goddess of sight and shining light), was founded in 2022 with a focus on leveraging recent breakthroughs in stellarator physics and engineering to create a faster, simpler approach to commercializing fusion energy. The company is reinventing the stellarator using computer-controlled arrays of planar coils and replacing the intricate, complex modular magnets utilized by prior generations of the stellarator.
Thea’s novel approach, the planar coil stellarator design, based on research from Princeton’s Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), offers a flurry of promising aspects. First, the reactor is built with an array of identical planar coils, allowing Thea to iterate quickly on the product specs. Second, the small and uniform parts are not only useful when it comes to ramping up production but also enable an easier disassembly for maintenance and replacement, resulting in an overall cost-effective system. Third, because each of the magnets is controlled individually, the required assembly tolerances relax. As a result, Thea will make stellarator systems simpler and more practical for commercial operation.
Thea Energy unifies both impressive fusion scientists and industry veterans from a variety of sectors. Brian Berzin, as the former head of strategy at General Fusion, and David Gates, as the former head of advanced projects at PPPL, have formed a stellar team with big drive to spearhead the commercialization of an efficient, and cost-effective approach to fusion.
If you have the chance, we encourage you to view one of David’s lectures — Reinventing the Stellarator.
Hitachi Ventures’ interest going forward
We are excited to join Thea Energy on its quest to make fusion a commercial reality. We also acknowledge that an entire ecosystem must be built and we as Hitachi Ventures are looking forward to building out our fusion portfolio and backing companies and founders that pave the way to a zero-emission future.
About Hitachi Ventures
Hitachi Ventures is the strategic corporate venture capital arm of Hitachi, Ltd. We invest in innovative startups with strategic relevance to Hitachi, Ltd. that address society’s key technological challenges in target areas such as mobility, health care and smart life, industry, energy and IT. With offices in Munich and Boston we cover Europe, Israel, and North America. We look for leading startups with exciting technologies and business models which we support as investor as well as through strategic collaborations with Hitachi business units.
To learn more, please feel free to reach out to Wolfgang Seibold, Tobias Jahn, Ankesh Madan, Tobias Graf or Elena Ballesteros Rodado.
Find out more about Thea’s work here, or visit the Company’s Website for the full press release.
