Clean energy startup ExoFusion today announced it has received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy through its Fusion Innovative Research Engine (FIRE) program.
The FIRE award will support research into the use of liquid metal walls in fusion generators and will be led by Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory with ExoFusion co-founder and chief science officer Michael Kotschenreuther spearheading one of the project’s initiatives.
ExoFusion launched in 2022 and is jointly based in Bellevue, Wash., and Austin, Texas, and bills itself as a boutique fusion company supporting the growing energy sector.
Its business model includes selling or licensing patents; providing simulations, testing and other design support for fusion technologies; developing new innovations; and fusion commercialization consulting services.
The Pacific Northwest is a hub for the technology, which aims to replicate the reactions that fuel the sun and the stars to create clean energy on earth. Local companies include Avalanche, Zap Energy, Helion Energy, Kyoto Fusioneering and Altrusion in Washington state, and General Fusion in British Columbia.
Three of ExoFusion’s co-founders are fusion physics professors at the University of Texas, including Kotschenreuther, senior scientific advisor Swadesh Mahajan, and chief technologist David Hatch. Bellevue-based CEO Romi Mahajan has held leadership for multiple startups and is the son of Swadesh Mahajan.
ExoFusion has been awarded approximately $3 million in grants from sources including DOE’s Innovation Network for Fusion Energy (INFUSE) program and Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), though some of the money is being issued over time.
The startup previously raised less than $800,000 in seed funding.
