Maritime Fusion YC Application
Maritime Fusion went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2025 batch as a Industrials company. Below: what the company does, who founded it, and its application to YC, reconstructed question by question in the real YC form.
- YC batch
- Winter 2025
- Industry
- IndustrialsEnergy
- Team size
- 6
- Status
- Active
- Launched
- 2025
Founders
Justin CohenFounder
Jason KaufmannFounder
What Maritime Fusion does
Maritime Fusion is building fusion reactors for ships and off grid energy markets. En route on this endeavor we’re commercializing High Temperature Superconducting (HTS) cable technology for power distribution while advancing the physics basis of our HTS tokamak to decarbonize global shipping. Breakeven fusion is coming soon, but the first-of-a-kind (FOAK) reactors will be costly, high maintenance, and have low capacity factors, leading to 5 - 10x higher electricity cost on the grid. Maritime Fusion is pursuing the most widely accepted approach to fusion, the tokamak, but specifically designed for the marine environment where the challenges that arise between breakeven and a commercially viable energy source are alleviated. The market we're targeting requires 15x less power, lower up-time, and costs the same as alternative fuels but without any emissions. Since fusion does not use highly radioactive fuels or materials - unlike fission - we sidestep the vast majority of regulatory challenges and safety risks associated with nuclear energy. Our team brings over a decade of industry and research experience in plasma physics, nuclear engineering, and electrical engineering with backgrounds at SpaceX, Tesla, Columbia University, and University of Pennsylvania.
Maritime Fusion's YC application, reconstructed
Y Combinator application
Maritime Fusion, Winter 2025 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.
- Founders2
- Company7
- Progress7
- Idea4
- Equity3
- Curious2
- Batch Preference1
Company
Maritime Fusion
Fusion reactors for ships
We're building fusion reactors specifically designed to power ships and off-grid energy markets. Along the way, we're commercializing high temperature superconducting cable technology for power distribution. Our fusion approach uses HTS tokamaks optimized for marine environments, aiming to decarbonize global shipping with safer, less regulated reactors that avoid the common fission challenges.
We live in San Francisco, and the company will remain based here after YC.
San Francisco has the engineering talent and investor community suited for advanced energy and hard tech. Our backgrounds and team are already rooted here.
21 more answers in the full application
Founders, Progress, Idea, Equity, Curious, Batch Preference are in the full version. Create a free account to open it in YC Insights, next to every other YC batch.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this the real Maritime Fusion YC application?
No. Y Combinator keeps submitted applications private. This is a reconstruction: the real YC form questions, answered from Maritime Fusion's public data (launch notes, founder backgrounds, product description). It shows how a company like Maritime Fusion would present itself to YC, not the text they submitted.
What YC batch was Maritime Fusion in?
Maritime Fusion was part of the Y Combinator Winter 2025 batch.
Who founded Maritime Fusion?
Maritime Fusion was founded by Justin Cohen, Jason Kaufmann.
What does Maritime Fusion do?
Fusion reactors for ships
How do I read the full reconstructed application?
Create a free Round Funded account. The full 26-answer version of Maritime Fusion's application, and every other YC batch, is in YC Insights.
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