Marathon Fusion, a San Francisco-based startup, raised $5.9M in seed funding led by 1517 Fund and Anglo American, with participation from Übermorgen Ventures, Shared Future Fund, Malcolm Handley, and others. Including a CREATE award from the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E, total funding reaches $6.9M. The funds will be used to expand operations and development efforts. The company has signed Letters of Intent with Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Helion Energy and is hiring in San Francisco.

SAN FRANCISCO, July 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Marathon Fusion , a startup developing fuel processing technology for the fusion industry, announced today a fundraise led by 1517 Fund and Anglo American, with participation from Übermorgen Ventures, Shared Future Fund, Malcolm Handley and other leading investors. Alongside a CREATE award from the Department of Energy's ARPA-E, these investments bring Marathon Fusion's total funding to $6.9M.Fusion can play a critical role in the energy transformation by providing clean, affordable and firm power at terawatt scale. But to fulfill that vision, the industry needs high-throughput processing of fusion fuel to meet the demands of commercial power plants.Since its founding in 2023, Marathon Fusion has been dedicated to making improvements to fuel processing efficiency. Its technology allows fusion power plants to operate with less tritium inventory, enabling smaller facilities and improved operational expenses.Marathon Fusion was supported early on by the Breakthrough Energy Fellows program, which funds promising, early-stage ideas and technologies in the fight against climate change. By providing capital, mentorship, education, and access to the Breakthrough Energy network, the program helps bridge the gap from lab to market.Now working to commercialize this technology to enable rapid, efficient and high-throughput processing of fusion fuel, Marathon aims to reduce onsite tritium inventories and improve plant economics, helping to ensure that fusion has a path to scale to its full potential.The new funding will allow Marathon Fusion to accelerate the development and deployment of its fuel processing technology in fusion power plants. The company has signed Letters of Intent with Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Helion Energy, two leading fusion startups aiming for the near-term deployment of fusion power plants."Part of the success of the ARC program will lie with industrial innovators to develop systems solving technical challenges inherent to fusion and enabling fusion power plants to be economically viable," said Brandon Sorbom, Chief Science Officer, and Co-founder, Commonwealth Fusion Systems