First Light Fusion raised $45 million in Series C funding from Oxford Science Enterprises, Hostplus and IP Group plc.

First Light Fusion, an Oxford, UK-based provider of research for energy generation via inertial fusion, announced closing series C at $45 million.

The money was raised from investors including Oxford Science Enterprises (formerly OSI), IP Group plc, Hostplus, Braavos Capital and Tencent.

Proceeds will be used for the development of its “gain” experiment, whereby the amount of energy generated outstrips that used to spark the reaction, and to perform further design and engineering work on a commercial fusion energy power plant based on their technology.

First Light Fusion, led by CEO Nick Hawker, was founded as a spinoff from the University of Oxford in June 2011 by professors Yiannis Ventikos and Nicholas Hawker, with seed capital from IP Group plc, Parkwalk Advisors Ltd and private investors. Invesco and OSI provided follow-on capital.

The business has grown from a research-focused university project to a fully-fledged company that has developed not only a strategy for how to make fusion energy work, but also a sustainable business model based on the technology.

The company procured, installed and commissioned its latest piece of equipment, a two-stage hyper-velocity gas gun nicknamed the “Big Friendly Gun” or BFG, which is at 22 metres long and weighing 25,000 kg. The BFG fires a 100 g projectile at a velocity of 6.5 km/s or 14,500 mph (about 20 times the speed of sound) into the “target”, the centre piece of First Light’s technology. The BFG complements First Light’s electromagnetic launch device “Machine 3” enabling the team to explore a different parameter space by launching larger but “slower” projectiles.

In the past twelve months the company has grown to 67 people and has expanded into larger premises to accommodate the staff and the new equipment.

First Light Fusion previously raised $25 million from Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI) and including IP Group plc and Hostplus.