With a new raise of $100M, Princeton’s Thea Energy is now the first to pay more.

Thea Energy has raised $100 million in Series B funding led by the US Innovative Technology Fund, the founders told TechCrunch. The investment places the company among the most profitable start-ups, which gives it access to commercial opportunities.

The new money will help Thea ramp up production of its specially designed micro-magnets and start building Eos, its “proper electronics” display device, starting next year. Thea already closed a $20 million Series A at the beginning of 2024. The new round brings the total private investment to $ 130 million, the founders told TechCrunch.

Magnetism is at the heart of most of the fusion power generation – it’s what causes a super-hot substance called plasma to explode and burn to a temperature high enough to fuse atoms together, which in turn release heat and energy. But Thea’s magnets are different: Each rectangular magnet can be adjusted to create the shape of all magnets. Thea compares this to computer pixels, which follow the instructions of a program together to create the sound and images that the monitor displays.

For Thea, that flexibility will be important. The type of reactor that produces it is known as a stellarator. Stellarators can store plasma in a stable configuration, but in order to do so, they must twist and bend to obtain plasma. This is in contrast to tokamaks, other advanced magnetic designs, which use more energy to keep the plasma liquid.

But the non-stellar shape drives the complexity and cost of making the magnet. Thea is betting that by covering the core of the reactor in many magnets, she can use software to control the small, flexible magnets and create a star-shaped magnetic field within a simple structure.

The software should also help with reactor assembly. Thea is they deliberately placed the experimental magnets so that they would not interactbut the program was able to compensate.

Thea hopes to complete its Eos demonstration in 2030 with a commercial model, called Helios, coming online in 2034. This time brings cooperation with competitors such as Commonwealth Fusion Systems, which has said it hopes to bring the Arc reactor online in Virginia. early 2030s.

If Thea’s pixel-inspired magnets work, the company could enjoy a creative opportunity. The startup has made several iterations of all its magnets in its lab in Jersey City. Meanwhile, some inventors pursuing magnetic confinement had to build large workshops to produce strong magnets.

Small magnets don’t lift anything, though. Thea uses 12 four-way magnets on the outside of planar coils to trap most of the plasma. 300-plus micro-magnets facilitate plasma processing. Relying on big magnets destroys the company’s chances of building it to the next level.

However, any simplification of the fusion reactor – which is already the most complex device ever created – will help to improve the process of fusion energy. An extra $100 million won’t hurt, either.

Other investors who participated in the round include General Innovation Capital Partners, Linse Capital, Calm Ventures, Climate Capital, Divergent Capital, Emerald Technology Ventures, Gaingels, Idemitsu Kosan, Overlay Capital, Timescale Ventures, and What If Ventures.

Update: Thea’s original design required the use of 12 round magnets. They were not added to later Bibles.