Avalanche Energy secures $29M to scale compact fusion efforts in the U.S.

Avalanche Energy announced a $29 million financing round intended to push its compact fusion program toward commercial testing and higher-performance plasma results. The round was led by RA Capital Management and brings the company’s cumulative financing to roughly $105 million when government grants are included. A substantial share of the new capital is allocated to FusionWERX, a shared R&D and testing campus in Richland, Washington, created to support private companies, national labs and universities; that site benefits from $10 million in state-provided matching funds and is expected to open in 2027. Avalanche plans to buy specialized gear such as superconducting magnets to outfit a next-generation compact device built for high power density and portability rather than grid-scale throughput. The startup’s technical approach diverges from regional competitors that target large, grid-connected reactors; Avalanche focuses on small, transportable machines tailored for defense and space environments where mass and footprint matter. Its founders bring propulsion and systems engineering experience from the aerospace sector, and they have leveraged obscure archival research to solve specific plasma control problems. The team reports key engineering advances, including stabilizing plasma behavior and operating a magneto-electrostatic prototype at 300,000 volts, marking a technical benchmark for its device class. Avalanche currently operates multiple prototype platforms and is iterating toward a machine aimed at producing more energy from fusion reactions than the inputs required to sustain them. That commercial threshold remains unproven across the industry, but the company is positioning itself to demonstrate record-setting plasmas and rapid build cycles rather than long, theoretical design phases. The funding round included both returning venture backers and several new investors, signaling continued investor appetite for next-generation fusion variants. By combining private financing with state support and a shared test infrastructure, Avalanche and its partners aim to accelerate supply-chain development for fusion-relevant components and radioactive-material handling. If the company hits its technical targets, compact fusion devices could open niche markets in remote power, defense, and space propulsion where fuel density and portability are critical. However, the path to commercial fusion remains high-risk: integration challenges, material constraints, and reproducible Q>1 operation still stand between prototypes and deployable systems. Avalanche’s strategy of smaller, application-focused devices reduces some scale-related risks but introduces tight tolerances and unique certification hurdles for defense and space customers. The new capital and access to FusionWERX shorten the timeline for hardware testing, but converting lab progress into certified, field-ready systems will demand sustained engineering, regulatory work, and further investment.