EtherNafusion, a nuclear fusion power generation startup, announced on the 6th that it has attracted..

EtherNafusion, a nuclear fusion power generation startup, announced on the 6th that it has attracted 2.3 billion won worth of seed investment.

Company K, Blue Point Partners, and Seoul National University Technology Holdings participated in this round. The exact investment amount and corporate value of each investment company are private. The seed round investment will focus on proving the concept of "Tokamak Injection," a current-driven technology independently developed by EtherNafusion, and verifying the initial core technology.

Nuclear fusion is a technology that reproduces the principle that the sun creates energy on the ground, and it can stably produce large-capacity electricity without emitting carbon. However, the existing nuclear fusion method had structural limitations that it was difficult to operate continuously for 24 hours like a commercial power plant.

To solve this problem, EtherNafusion is developing a Tokamak injection technology that continuously supplies plasma current from the outside. It is a method that enables uninterrupted continuous operation required for commercial power plants by stably maintaining the plasma current inside the Tokamak with high efficiency.

EtherNafusion plans to become a game changer in the next-generation energy market with a compact modular fusion reactor (COSMOS) that operates stably 24 hours a day by utilizing Tokamak injection technology for continuous operation in a spheroidal tokamak device that is advantageous for miniaturization of nuclear fusion reactors.

Since 2011, the start-up team from Seoul National University's VEST laboratory has been developing and researching the nation's only special tokamak-type fusion test device VEST. The execution power of the technology demonstration process is considered a strength in that it is not a simple research manpower, but a team that has developed equipment and accumulated and operated experimental data.

EtherNafusion has been intensively fostered since 2024 to link science and technology capabilities in the high-level new technology field to market innovation through the Deep Science Start-up Support Project of the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology Commercialization.

The fusion industry is also rapidly shifting from the past state-led large-scale research center to a competitive system for private startups. After leading foreign companies such as Commonwealth Fusion System (CFS) and Helion Energy attracted trillions of won in investment, the Ministry of Science and ICT is in full swing in Korea to create an ecosystem for commercializing nuclear fusion centered on private companies.

"Nuclear fusion power generation is a representative deep science field that needs to be approached from the perspective of long-term technological sovereignty and energy security rather than short-term marketability," said Min Nam-ki, a senior judge at Blue Point, who was in charge of the investment. "Based on our experience in the only special tokamak experiment in Korea, we have invested in that it is a team that is solving the problem of continuous operation, which is a key task of commercial fusion power generation."

"Based on this investment, we will demonstrate key technologies for securing global competitiveness early and speed up development toward the goal of commercializing fusion energy in the 2030s," said Kim Tae-kyung, CEO of EtherNafusion.