Estonia’s Fermi sees investors rush for its early-stage nuclear reactor project

By
Tarmo Virki
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Estonian nuclear power firm Fermi Energia closed on Feb. 19 its funding round days earlier than planned as it saw investors rush to back its early-stage nuclear reactor project.

Fermi planned to raise 0.5-1 million euros of its 2.5 million euro Series A investment round through its Funderbeam campaign, but due to investors massive interest raised the Funderbeam’ syndicate share of the round to 2 million euros.

On midday on Feb. 19 it closed the investment round when investors’ signups approaching 5 million euros.

The company, whose founders include Sandor Liive, the former head of Estonian state utility Eesti Energia, and Lingvist founder Mait Müntel,  has so far raised 560,000 euros from private investors and U.S. venture capital fund Last Energy VC.Bolt founder Martin Villig and Pipedrive founder Martin Henk, are among key investors of the Series A investment round, Fermi said earlier this week.

Fermi will use the capital to prepare its application for the spatial planning process, which includes environmental, societal, economic and national security reviews, is expected to take up to five years. Helsinki-Tallinn tunnel project of Peter Vesterbacka aims to avoid Estonia’s lengthy spatial planning process, which is yet to be tested.

Fermi aims to start construction of its small modular reactor in 2030 and the plant would be producing electricity in 2035.

“Estonia has set an ambitious goal to end electricity production from oil shale by 2035. Simultaneously, the country cannot be dependent on wind and solar power only, as those sources depend on weather conditions, and the neighbouring countries are projected to be short on energy export output,” said Kalev Kallemets, Fermi CEO.

The closest nuclear reactor construction project to Estonia started in Finland in 2005. The Olkiluoto 3 reactor was scheduled to start in 2010. After 12 years of delays its due to start in 2022.