Federico Felici and Jonas Buchli, founders of Lausanne-based Fusionality, identified a gap in the fusion power industry: a lack of standardized components and expertise for control systems. Despite repeated requests from fusion companies for off-the-shelf solutions, no provider existed who understood the specific needs and language of fusion. Recognizing this opportunity, Felici and Buchli, who have extensive experience in developing control methods for experimental fusion devices, launched Fusionality and secured a $3.7 million pre-seed round from Founderful and Playfair. Felici serves as CEO, while Buchli is CTO.

Fusionality aims to address the commonality in control systems across different fusion reactor designs, where 80% of each company’s control system is essentially the same. The company plans to develop a suite of control systems and simulation environments that startups can adapt to their specific reactor designs. Initially focusing on magnetic confinement fusion, an approach that uses powerful electromagnets to maintain the necessary conditions for fusion, Fusionality intends to eventually expand its offerings to other fusion technologies. The founders acknowledge the potential role of AI in enhancing control systems but emphasize that current AI capabilities are better suited to complement and optimize specific aspects rather than fully control the reactors.

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