A former employee of General Fusion has started his own company to make a standardized component to support companies working to generate fusion power.Â
The news: Toronto-based Daedal Systems has raised just over $4 million USD ($5.7 million CAD) to develop standardized plasma measurement systems for the nuclear fusion industry. The round was led by OMERS Ventures, with participation from Garage Capital, Panache Ventures, Ripple Ventures, MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund, and a group of angel investors.
Fusion developers need detailed plasma measurements to understand how their reactor designs perform. That component is often designed in-house by the developers. By specializing in this one component, Daedal wants to free up resources for those companies to focus on developing their reactors. The fledgling company will use its fresh funding to build its first three reactor diagnostic systems and deploy the prototypes with pilot customers.
From the source: “After building and deploying plasma measurement systems at General Fusion, I saw the same challenge across the sector: every company needs high-quality diagnostics, but too much time and capital go into recreating similar systems in-house,” Daedal founder and CEO Henry Gould said in a statement. “Daedal was created to solve that problemâŠand help them move faster toward commercialization.”
The context: The global race for commercial fusion powerâan as-of-now theoretical method of harnessing energy from reactions similar to those that power the sunâhas captured players from around the globe, from national labs to private companies like General Fusion, where Gould worked in many different roles from 2018 to 2025. The technology, if proven commercially viable, promises abundant, fossil-fuel-free power.Â
Daedal did not disclose who its pilot customers are, however, a spokesperson told BetaKit that the firm has signed memoranda of understanding with fusion companies like Toronto-based Stellarex Energy, Proxima Fusion, OpenStar Technologies, and Marathon Fusion.
Final thought: Daedal, which has a research partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, claims its platform can adapt to different fusion machines and reactor approaches. While the companyâs initial focus is on the fusion industry, it said it has a longer-term ambition to become a major provider for other industries that require advanced measurement systems.
Feature image courtesy Daedal Systems.