Last month, Richmond, BC-based General Fusion quietly secured another $51.5 million CAD in funding, according to a Nov. 27 securities filing with Canadian regulators.
Nearly $51.1 million of that was raised via simple agreements for future equity (SAFEs), with the remainder coming in the form of warrants to purchase common shares. Sixty-seven undisclosed investors from across BC, the United States, and five other countries took part in the financing.
General Fusion is Canada’s entrant in the global race for commercially viable fusion power. This round, which was first reported by The Globe and Mail and confirmed by BetaKit, marks the firm’s second capital infusion in four months after staving off a cash crunch in early 2025.
This funding round marks the firm’s second capital infusion in four months after staving off a cash crunch in early 2025.
In May, General Fusion shed staff and scaled back its operations amid fundraising challenges. This August, General Fusion’s public plea for investment was answered when the company closed $30 million, largely from existing backers, in a “pay-to-play” deal that allowed it to resume advancing its LM26 fusion demonstration program.
This year, rival fusion developers like Germany’s Proxima Fusion and US-based Commonwealth Fusion Systems and TAE Technologies have each announced nine-figure USD deals.
According to The Globe, existing General Fusion backer PenderFund, which also participated in its August financing, invested $5 million via SAFE in the company’s latest round, with the expectation that General Fusion would look to go public as soon as possible and capitalize on current interest in the nuclear space, potentially by merging with a special purpose acquisition company, a path Canadian deep tech peer Xanadu recently took
BetaKit has reached out to General Fusion and PenderFund for comment on why it closed this round, how far this capital will advance its mission, and when it intends to go public.
Founded in 2002 by physicist Michel Laberge, General Fusion aims to develop a commercially viable approach to generating zero-carbon fusion power to help meet global clean energy needs. Many players from around the globe are participating in the global race for fusion, from national labs to academic institutions and private companies.
Nuclear fusion is the physical process that powers the sun and stars. As the world looks to meet growing energy demands and shift away from fossil fuels, there is a quest to harness it as a commercial energy source, because it offers the prospect of abundant, carbon-free power and could bring significant economic, geopolitical, and environmental benefits to businesses, countries, and consumers.
“The long-term view is that the world will run on fusion in the future,” General Fusion CEO Greg Twinney told BetaKit in an interview back in May.
Getting there has taken a lot of time and money. This round appears to bring the now 23-year-old company’s total funding to nearly $600 million, which includes support from private backers and the federal and BC governments.
In March, General Fusion took a major step towards its ultimate target by creating its first magnetized plasma in LM26, which is needed for its fusion reactions. The next major technical milestone General Fusion is targeting is demonstrating fusion at temperatures of 10 million degrees Celsius, something that spokesperson Danielle Johnson previously told BetaKit that the company’s August financing would help it achieve.
General Fusion will likely require more cash to reach the 100-million-degree mark and “scientific breakeven conditions,” or the point where its LM26 fusion demonstration device is capable of producing an equal amount of energy to what it takes in. The fusion energy developer ultimately hopes to deploy the first commercial power plant based on its Magnetized Target Fusion technology by the mid-2030s.
Feature image courtesy General Fusion.