The heavy industry giants aren’t waiting for the grid to clean itself—they are funding the solution directly.
newcleo, the Italian nuclear startup specializing in Gen-IV Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), has raised €75 million (~$89M) in a new funding round. The standout feature? The capital table is led by industrial heavyweights like Danieli (Iron & Steel) and Cementir Holding (Cement), signaling a shift toward “captive nuclear” for energy-intensive sectors.
💰 THE CAPITAL STACK:
- The Raise: €75M (~$89M), bringing the 12-month total to €105M and lifetime funding to €645M.
- The Strategic Shift: This isn’t just financial backing; it’s a partnership to integrate lead-cooled fast reactors (LFRs) directly into industrial processes.
- The Tech: newcleo’s reactors run on reprocessed nuclear waste (MOX), closing the fuel cycle while delivering the high-temperature heat required for steelmaking.
🇺🇸 THE US PIVOT: CEO Stefano Buono is aggressively targeting the US market, capitalizing on the recent Executive Order from President Trump to fast-track nuclear licensing. The startup aims to leverage this deregulation to deploy its waste-to-energy reactors faster than European frameworks currently allow.
💡 ANALYST TAKEAWAY: This represents the birth of “Industrial Nuclear.” For decades, nuclear was a utility-scale game. Now, companies like Danieli are effectively buying their own power plants to ensure survival in a net-zero world. If newcleo can successfully couple SMRs with steel mills, they solve the two biggest hurdles of the energy transition: intermittency and industrial heat.
👇 Energy Investors: Is “behind-the-meter” nuclear the only viable path to decarbonizing steel and cement, or is green hydrogen still the frontrunner?