Madison fusion energy startup lands $12 million to decarbonize heavy industry

Backed by $12 million from a well-known Silicon Valley venture firm and the U.S. Department of Energy, a new Madison company is developing fusion energy technology for industrial heat and power.

Realta Fusion Inc. was spun out of research conducted at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It's working to commercialize fusion energy as a clean power source to help achieve global net-zero greenhouse gas emission targets.

"The endgame here is, 'Can we get to large-scale energy production?'" Realta Fusion CEO Kieran Furlong said. "We're looking at the need to decarbonize our heavy industry as a path that we see for early adopters."

As it works toward that goal, Realta is part of a growing fusion energy hub in Wisconsin. Realta and Type One Energy in Middleton were recently among just eight U.S. companies selected for a total of $46 million in DOE funding for fusion energy commercialization. A more mature UW-Madison spinoff company, SHINE Technologies, has raised hundreds of millions of dollars to advance its fusion goals.

Realta's funding includes a $9 million seed investment led by Khosla Ventures in Menlo Park, California, and a $3 million award from the DOE’s Fusion Development Program. The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation is also an investor.

An experimental fusion energy device at the UW-Madison Physical Sciences Laboratory in Stoughton

Realta Fusion Inc.

Furlong got involved with what would become Realta around two years ago, as UW-Madison professor Cary Forest and others were working on a $10 million research project funded through the DOE's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy. The company was formally incorporated in the fall of 2022 with the goal of commercializing the technology.

This summer, Realta aims to complete a large experimental device that's under construction at its lab in Stoughton, Furlong said. It will then begin work on the next version of its device that could be operational in five to six years, he said. The technology could be up and running at an industrial site in the early 2030s.

Realta will use its recent funding to grow its team and design the next device, Furlong said. There are five people on the founding team including Furlong and Forest, who serves as the company's chief scientific officer. The startup aims to hit 15 people by the end of the year and then double its team by the end of 2024, Furlong said.

As it grows, Realta intends to remain based in Wisconsin and is seeking office space in the Madison area, Furlong said. UW-Madison serves as a strong foundation for research and talent, and local manufacturing companies provide a potential customer base, Furlong said.

"What Detroit was to the global automobile industry in the '50s and what Houston is today to the global oil and gas industry, we'd like to see that in Wisconsin for the 21st century for the fusion industry," Furlong said. "I think Wisconsin is very well placed to take a leadership role in fusion energy."