The value, market potential and investment opportunities in fusion innovations and spin-outs.

Dr. Melanie Windridge, Co-founder, FusionX Group in conversation with two leading fusion investors to explore key contextual questions on fusion as an investment opportunity:

• Why is investor interest in fusion growing? How investible is fusion?  
• How attractive are opportunities in non-power applications?
• What is needed for fusion to main-stream, and how does it get there?
   

A panel of leading investors in fusion share their thoughts on fusion as an investment opportunity and how fusion sits with allocations to renewables, alternative energy, deep-tech:

• What are expectations, over what time horizon, and how has fusion performed vs. expectations thus far?
• Can fusion enhance short- and long-term returns? Does it reduce risk/bring diversification to a portfolio? What’s an ideal weighting towards fusion? 
• Few and large investments in scientifically mature approaches or several smaller early-stage investments in novel approaches? 
• Many investors lack the in-house expertise to assess the merits of fusion technology and there is little public research available to assist analysts. How can technical analysis/diligence be effected efficiently?

Moderated by: Katie Fehrenbacher, Climate Deals Reporter, Axios

A panel of senior figures from the world’s leading fusion energy entities and their investors discuss and define the path to commercialisation, and the implications for revaluations, up-rounds and exits.

• What is the status of the leading technologies? What challenges remain to achieving private-sector break-even?
• How has the financing environment changed in the past 12 months and how can the challenges be navigated, and capital flows sustained?
• How important is the monetization of IP, adjacent applications and other pre-generation revenues to maintaining cash and progress?
• How does the path, and valuations, evolve as fusion moves from science and tech, to engineering, to construction, to off-takers & commercial risk?

Moderated by: Jacqueline Kirtley, Assistant Professor, Wharton Business School

A panel of senior figures from leading public sector entities, complemented by an investor view, explore the path to commercialisation, the challenges, their support and expectations, and the drivers for the public sector’s growing fusion focus.

• How are public sector entities supporting the advance to commercialisation?
• How do approaches differ from country-to-country, what are their relative strengths and where are the synergies between them?  
• How important is access to non-dilutive capital to fusion investors?
• How will public sector support evolve as fusion moves from science and engineering, to construction, deployment & commercial risk?
   

Moderated by: Alex Borovskis, Co-Founder, Helixos

Dr. Melanie Windridge, Co-founder, FusionX Group interviews a leading fusion innovator to explore key questions on the origins and ongoing application of superconductivity in the path to commercially-viable fusion.
 

• What is the current status of the leading technologies?
• What challenges remain to surpass break-even?
• What are the drivers of valuation for ICF companies?
• How does the laser path to ICF commercialisation compare to the impact approach?

Moderated by: Heather Jackson, Technology-to-Market Advisor, ARPA-E, U.S. Department of Energy

An exploration of proprietary data, defining the evolution, size, & dynamics of a commercial fusion market for power, industrial heat, and the supply chain.

• How big might the global market be, and where will the opportunities lie?
• How will cost reductions influence deployment curves?
• What does this mean for supply chains supporting fusion plants?
   

A conversation between senior executives from Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Dominion Energy explores their plans, intentions and expectations for the world's first commercial fusion power plant.  

• What brought Dominion to fusion and CFS to Dominion? 
• What are the milestones for SPARC & the commencement of ARC? 
• How does Dominion envision the long-term future for fusion for the grid?
• How do CFS and Dominion see fusion companies and utilities most effectively working together?
   

Five short presentations by companies pursuing power and/or other applications and looking for seed or Series A funding followed by an interactive Q&A.

• Why is it important to investigate less-mature approaches when other, established approaches are moving ahead at pace? 
• How do their risk profiles compare between capex-intensive approaches well-researched in public labs & simpler concepts pursued by others?
• What criteria do investors apply when researching and funding novel, early-stage fusion approaches? Or opportunities in the supply-chain?
• How can investments in alternative fusion approaches enhance a portfolio?

​​​​​​Moderated by: Malcolm Handley, Partner & Founder, Strong Atomics

An interactive conversation exploring the synergies between the pursuit of the commercially viable fusion energy and non-power applications.