Twenty-four-year-old JC Btaiche has raised $20 million and signed on Iran’s former top nuclear scientist and former Pentagon officials with an audacious goal: using nuclear fusion to solve all our energy problems.ince the first hydrogen bomb tests in the 1950s, scientists have struggled to develop a practical fusion energy source, one that would mimic the reactions that power the sun for safe use here on earth.
And then there’s Btaiche himself, who — without a background in nuclear science or even a college education — is taking on such a daunting challenge with a fraction of the money funding his rivals. And yet, investors are backing him. Fuse is currently in talks to raise another $20 million investment for a series A funding round.
The company’s lead engineer is Vahid Damideh, previously one of Iran’s top nuclear scientists at its Atomic Energy Organization, where he oversaw its National Nuclear Fusion Project, he told. At Fuse, he’s leading the development of its primary products, Titan and Faeton, which the company is pitching as a way to prepare America’s arsenal for potential nuclear fallout.
Fuse’s team also includes advisors and executives who came from the Pentagon and the CIA, including Laura Thomas, a former Afghanistan base chief for the CIA who is advising the company on a government relations strategy. Of Damideh’s background in Iran, she said, “I don't think it's typical, but it is only in America you would find a team like this. We want the best people and we also want people who care or have the same aligned values with the West.