China's Energysingularity raises $58m

Additional commitments came from Enlightment and Heimen Equity Fund. The pre-Series A follows a CNY 400m commitment not long after the company's founding in 2021. It was led by Nio Capital and miHoYo and featured Sequoia Capital China and Bluerun Ventures.

Energysingularity specialises in controlled nuclear fusion through high-temperature superconducting. It is estimated that private investors have pumped more than USD 5bn into fusion technology in recent years as part of carbon neutrality agendas. It is just one branch of alternative fuels attracting investor attention.

The core team at Energysingularity comprises talent from top Chinese and US universities. One founder, Zhao Yang, has a doctorate in physics from Princeton University; another, Yuming Ye, previously worked for KKR and technology investor GX Capital.

In 2021, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and US-based Commonwealth Fusion Systems achieved a breakthrough in fusion via superconducting by demonstrating the feasibility of a fusion device that could produce more power than it consumes.

The global leader in the space is arguably another US start-up, Helion, which secured USD 2.2bn in funding - most of it tied to performance milestones - in late 2021. The company claimed to be on track to produce electricity from fusion by 2024.

Last year, China's Startorus Fusion, which focuses on the commercial application of fusion technology, closed a round worth hundreds of millions of renminbi. Sequoia is one of its backers. Meanwhile, in Japan, Kyoto Fusioneering raised JPY2 bn (USD 15m).

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Early-stage
• Technology
• Cleantech
• China
• Nio Capital
• Sequoia Capital
• BlueRun Ventures
• energy