Bengaluru-based deeptech energy startup Pranos Fusion has successfully produced plasma inside its experimental reactor, PRAGYA, marking a significant milestone in India’s emerging private nuclear-fusion ecosystem. The achievement moves the company from the design and engineering stage into experimental reactor operations and represents an important step toward developing technologies that could eventually support commercial fusion power.
Pranos Fusion, which is around two-and-a-half years old, began building PRAGYA as a testbed reactor in June 2025 after developing software designed to compute and optimise tokamak configurations. A tokamak is a type of nuclear-fusion reactor that uses powerful magnetic fields to confine extremely hot plasma. The company is developing a compact, low-aspect-ratio tokamak as part of its broader effort to build the technological foundation for fusion energy.
The production of plasma is particularly important because it demonstrates that the machine can move beyond being a physical prototype toward operating as a fusion research platform. However, producing plasma should not be confused with generating fusion power or achieving net energy gain. PRAGYA is primarily intended as a testbed through which Pranos can develop and validate the hardware, control systems and operational knowledge required for more advanced fusion machines.
The startup is pursuing an integrated technology stack covering reactor design and plasma-control software, tokamak hardware and high-temperature superconducting magnets. Its software platform, JENGA, is designed around tokamak design and control, while MAGGA focuses on high-temperature superconducting magnet technology. PRAGYA serves as the physical reactor platform where these technologies can be integrated and tested under real operating conditions.
The milestone follows Pranos Fusion’s $6.8 million funding round, which was co-led by pi Ventures and Ankur Capital, with participation from returning investor Industrial47 and angel investors. The company had said the capital would accelerate development across its fusion technology stack and had targeted first plasma from PRAGYA during 2026.
Founded in 2024 by Shaurya Kaushal and Roshan George, Pranos Fusion is taking an engineering-focused approach to fusion energy. The company has been co-incubated at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) and the Institute for Plasma Research (IPR), giving it access to scientific infrastructure and expertise in plasma and fusion research. The startup is also working toward integrating its software capabilities with existing tokamak systems in India.
Fusion energy seeks to replicate the fundamental reaction that powers the Sun by combining light atomic nuclei under extreme conditions to release energy. Unlike conventional fossil-fuel generation, the long-term promise of fusion lies in producing large amounts of energy without direct carbon emissions during the fusion reaction. But commercial fusion remains technically challenging, requiring sustained plasma confinement, advanced magnets, sophisticated control systems and economically viable reactor designs.
For Pranos Fusion, PRAGYA is therefore not the end goal but an important experimental platform. The company has described the reactor as the beginning of a longer journey toward developing the technology, data and control systems needed to eventually build a net-gain fusion reactor. Its latest plasma milestone places the Bengaluru startup among the growing number of private companies globally attempting to turn decades of fusion research into practical reactor technology.
