Twilio co-founder’s fusion power startup raises $450M from Bessemer and Alphabet’s GV

Inertia Enterprises has raised $450 million to build one of the world’s most powerful lasers, which it hopes will serve as the foundation for a grid-scale power plant, which the fusion startup intends to begin building in 2030. Inertia Enterprises is based on technology developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility (NIF). NIF is the site of the world’s only controlled nuclear fusion reactions that have reached the scientific break-even point, where the reaction releases more energy than it initially took in.

The Series A was led by Bessemer Venture Partners with participation from GV, Modern Capital, Threshold Ventures and others. Inertia’s founders include Jeff Lawson, who co-founded Twilio and serves as its CEO; Annie Critcher, who led the successful trials at NIF; and Mike Dunn, a professor at Stanford University who helped Lawrence Livermore develop the power plant design based on the NIF. Critcher remained in her position at Lawrence Livermore.

NIF’s neutralization experiments have been a major milestone on the path toward widespread nuclear fusion energy. However, significant progress is needed before a fusion power plant can deliver electricity to the grid. For inertia, this means building a laser capable of firing 10 kilojoules 10 times per second.

The startup’s reactor relies on a form of fusion known as inertial confinement. In a flavor of inertial confinement in inertia, a laser bombards the fuel target, compressing the fuel until the atoms inside fuse and release energy. This technology is based on NIF designs, where laser light is converted into X-rays inside the target. The X-rays are what ultimately heat and compress the fuel grains.

Each of Inertia’s power plants will need 1,000 of its lasers to bomb 4.5mm targets, which cost less than a dollar to mass produce. In contrast, the NIF 192 system uses a laser to fire at targets that are painstakingly designed and take dozens of hours to manufacture. Inertia is betting that by using the same basic principles as NIF and applying a more commercial mindset, it can significantly reduce costs.

Inertia’s new round is the latest in a series of funding announcements from merger startups in recent months. Through this round and others, fusion startups have attracted more than $10 billion in investment. At least a dozen companies have raised more than $100 million.

Last week, Avalanche said it had raised $29 million to develop its office-sized fusion reactor. Earlier this year, Type One Energy told TechCrunch that it had attracted $87 million in upfront investment from the $250 million Series B it is currently raising. Last summer, Commonwealth Fusion Systems raised $863 million from dozens of investors, including Google, Nvidia, and Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

Two merging companies recently announced they are going public via reverse mergers. General Fusion said in January it would merge with buyout firm Spring Valley III in a deal that values ​​the combined company at $1 billion. General Fusion had previously struggled to raise money from private investors. Earlier last month, TAE Technologies announced that it would merge with Donald Trump’s social media company, Trump Media & Technology Group; The combined company will be valued at $6 billion, according to the all-stock deal.