PomegraHelical Fusion closed a ¥3.23B Series B extension from Fuji Electric, Fujikura and Tokyo Gas, lifting its round to ¥5.93B for its stellarator reactor.
Key Takeaways
- Helical Fusion closed a ¥3.23B (about $20.6M) Series B second close, announced October 8, 2026.
- The Series B now totals ¥5.93B, and cumulative funding including subsidies and loans is ¥13.05B.
- Fuji Electric, Fujikura and Tokyo Gas are new shareholders. Lead investor and valuation are undisclosed.
Lead
Helical Fusion, a Tokyo-based developer of helical stellarator fusion power plants, raised ¥3.23B (about $20.6M) in the second close of its Series B round, the company announced on October 8, 2026. New shareholders include Fuji Electric, Fujikura, Tokyo Gas, KKT, Urata and Kepple Group. Hazama Ando also entered through a capital tie-up, and the individual-investor fund eCrowd NEXT took part again.
The extension brings the Series B total to ¥5.93B. Counting grants and loans, Helical Fusion has now secured ¥13.05B since its founding in October 2021. The company did not name a lead investor or disclose a valuation.
Who Is Backing Helical Fusion This Time?
The second close is dominated by industrial companies that would supply or buy from a fusion plant, not by financial funds. Fuji Electric, which has supplied power equipment for Helical Fusion's high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnet work since 2025, has also become an official partner in the company's Helix Program. Fujikura makes the HTS wire used in magnets that confine plasma. Tokyo Gas represents a future energy-sector customer.
This pattern matches the first close. In July 2026, the company raised roughly ¥2.7B from corporate backers, among them Nichias, Hasetora, Seno Kisen, Konoike Transport and Mitani Sangyo. Together the two closes bring in more than 15 corporate names. Roughly 30 Japanese companies are involved in development and manufacturing.
What Is Helical Fusion Building?
Helical Fusion is building a stellarator, a fusion design that holds plasma with twisted external magnetic coils instead of the large plasma current a tokamak needs. That allows steady-state operation in principle, but the coil geometry is hard to engineer and manufacture. The company spun out of Japan's National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS) and draws on nearly 70 years of Japanese helical research. CEO Takaya Taguchi cites that history and the country's manufacturing base as the company's edge.
Its roadmap is called the Helix Program. Helix HARUKA is an integrated demonstration device, now under construction at NIFS in Toki, Gifu Prefecture, with a practical demonstration targeted around 2030. Helix KANATA would follow as the first power plant, aimed at net electricity generation in the 2030s. The company says it expects to finish individual demonstrations of two core components during the 2020s.
How Does This Round Compare With Earlier Funding?
The Series B is larger than the ¥2.3B Series A the company announced in July 2025, and the extension alone exceeds that earlier round. Series B has so far raised about two and a half times the Series A. The step up is plausible for a company moving from component tests to device construction.
The scale needs context. Cumulative funding of ¥13.05B, roughly $84M, is small beside the sums raised by Western rivals such as Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Helion, which have each raised close to or more than $1B. A fusion device built to deliver net power will cost far more than Helical Fusion has raised. The company will need a larger round, or heavier public funding, to complete HARUKA and fund KANATA.
Why Do Strategic Investors Matter More Than the Cheque Size?
Strategic investors matter here because the main risk is manufacturing, not only physics. A stellarator needs complex superconducting coils, power supplies and heat-resistant materials, and Japanese suppliers sit on each of those chains. Fujikura, Fuji Electric and the first-close backers each cover one of them. Their equity gives them a reason to qualify products for fusion use early.
There is a flip side. Corporate investors often write small cheques to secure supplier positions, and such stakes can be cheap options on a technology that may not reach the market until the 2030s. The undisclosed valuation limits any judgment on whether they paid a premium for that position.
What Comes Next for Helical Fusion?
The next milestones are construction progress on Helix HARUKA and HTS magnet demonstrations, both of which the new money funds. Further Series B closes are possible, since the company has used a rolling structure with two closes so far. A larger raise for KANATA, the power plant, would likely require government support and more utilities or industrial groups, and Tokyo Gas's entry shows that pool is widening.
Japan's government has set a goal of demonstrating fusion power generation in the 2030s, which gives the company policy support. Delivery against the 2030 demonstration date will determine whether the strategic investors stay in for later rounds.
Outlook
Helical Fusion has added major Japanese suppliers and an energy utility to its cap table, taking its Series B to ¥5.93B and total funding to ¥13.05B. The round shows industrial buy-in for the stellarator route, but lead investor and valuation remain undisclosed, and the sum is small against the cost of a net-power plant. HARUKA's 2030 demonstration is the test that will shape the next, larger financing.