Inertia Enterprises, a groundbreaking fusion power startup co-founded by Twilio co-founder Jeff Lawson, has raised $450 million in a Series A funding round.
The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners with participation from GV (Alphabet's investment arm), Modern Capital, Threshold Ventures, and others.
Founders' Stellar Expertise
Jeff Lawson, now CEO of Inertia Enterprises, brings his entrepreneurial success from scaling Twilio into a cloud communications giant.
Co-founder Annie Kritcher led pivotal experiments at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility (NIF), achieving the world's first controlled fusion breakeven.
Mike Dunne, the third co-founder and a Stanford professor, contributed to developing a power plant design based on NIF technology.
Cutting-Edge Fusion Technology
Inertia is developing one of the world's most powerful lasers for inertial confinement fusion to power grid-scale plants.
The system uses lasers to compress fuel targets, triggering fusion reactions that release vast clean energy.
Each plant will deploy 1,000 lasers firing at inexpensive, mass-produced 4.5 mm targets, contrasting NIF's costly custom ones.
Path to Commercialization
The startup aims to build a laser delivering 10 kilojoules of energy 10 times per second as a key milestone.
Inertia plans to break ground on its first grid-scale fusion power plant in 2030, addressing critical gaps from NIF's scientific success.
This funding arrives amid a fusion boom, with over $10 billion invested sector-wide, promising unlimited carbon-free energy to combat climate change.
Competitors like Commonwealth Fusion Systems and TAE Technologies highlight the race, but Inertia's NIF heritage positions it strongly for impact.
Andrew Lee
