Novo Holdings and SUBRA join forces to accelerate development of innovative superconductor technology for power transmission and fusion energy

Today, Novo Holdings and SUBRA announce a partnership to fast-track the advancement of innovative superconductor technology supported by a convertible loan from Novo Holdings in Danish deep-tech SUBRA.

The global energy transition has become one of the most pressing challenges of our time. As the world strives to reduce carbon emissions and meet ambitious climate targets, innovative technologies are needed to modernise energy systems and enable sustainable power generation.

Superconductors can become the key to transforming our energy system. They hold promise to enable a new generation of zero resistance power cables as well as fusion reactors, playing a crucial role in improving energy efficiency, supporting renewable energy integration, and advancing next-generation solutions like fusion energy. The partnership between SUBRA and Novo Holdings aims to advance SUBRA’s development and position SUBRA for scaling towards making a critical impact in the green transition.

Despite their significance in advanced technologies, present superconductors face several critical challenges, including difficulties in scalability and cost-effective production. SUBRA’s technology takes a different approach to high-temperature superconductors. Bringing superconductors from flat tape technology to bundled wires, the SUBRACABLE innovation has the potential to overcome limitations of traditional copper cables and current flat tape superconductors. This is realised by enabling the production of superconductors that are scalable to extreme lengths, with superior properties such as thermal robustness, mechanical flexibility and high current capacity.

Anders C. Wulff, CEO, SUBRA, said: “This partnership is an immensely important step towards ensuring a strong and long-term strategic path for realising our shared vision of a greener tomorrow. Accelerated development of superconductors plays a key role in this vision, enabling more efficient energy transmission and extremely powerful magnets for fusion reactors. Partnering with Novo Holdings is a vital step towards growing our company as we are positioning SUBRA for its Series A financing come 2025.”

Marcus Remmers, Partner, Planetary Health Investments, Novo Holdings, said: “We are very pleased to partner with SUBRA, since we believe that Novo Holdings’ commitment to planetary health aligns well with SUBRA’s impact-driven strategy for advancing the green transition, creating meaningful opportunities for synergy and innovation. We look forward to building this partnership into a long-term commitment and contributing to SUBRA’s continued growth and success.

By working in tandem, we can enable the shift toward a more sustainable, resilient, and environmentally friendly future.”

About SUBRA A/S
SUBRA is a science-based deep-tech company pioneering in the field of superconductivity. With more than 15 years of excellency in superconductor R&D, the spin-off from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), is pursuing the vision to transform the way we transport electricity. As an impact-driven company, SUBRA is strongly committed to a sustainable future and to being a key player in the climate solution. All SUBRA’s technologies help to strive towards that goal.

With world-leading expertise in superconductivity and surface technology, SUBRA is building the bridge between superconductor research, innovative production systems, and engineering technology to make low-cost manufacturing of superconductors feasible at scale. SUBRA aims to be the first in the sector to reach this objective, by providing the game changing solution for ramping up a pan-European energy grid and enabling fusion companies to build more robust and cost-effective magnets.

About Novo Holdings A/S
Novo Holdings is a holding and investment company that is responsible for managing the assets and the wealth of the Novo Nordisk Foundation. The purpose of Novo Holdings is to improve people’s health and the sustainability of society and the planet by generating attractive long-term returns on the assets of the Novo Nordisk Foundation. Wholly owned by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, Novo Holdings is the controlling shareholder of Novo Nordisk A/S and Novonesis A/S (Novozymes A/S) and manages an investment portfolio with a long-term return perspective. In addition to managing a broad portfolio of equities, bonds, real estate, infrastructure and private equity assets, Novo Holdings is a world-leading life sciences investor. Through its Seeds, Venture, Growth, Asia, Planetary Health and Principal Investments teams, Novo Holdings invests in life science companies at all stages of development. As of year-end 2023, Novo Holdings had total assets of EUR 149 billion. www.novoholdings.dk