On September 22, 2022, Challenergy, a developer of "the Magunus vertical axis wind turbines," announced that it raised approximately 1.2 billion yen ($8.3M) from the Maezawa Fund.

Challenergy has focused on Japan's energy problems in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, and is developing Magnus wind turbines that are resistant to changes in wind speed and direction by combining Magnus force with a vertical axis in order to promote wind power generation in Japan, which has one of the world's most severe weather environments.

Challenagy has succeeded in commercializing the world's first Magnus wind turbine and began demonstration testing of a 10kW machine on Ishigaki Island, Okinawa Prefecture, in August 2018; the 10kW machine will be mass-produced in 2020, and the 10kW machine began operation in the Philippines in August 2021.

Challenergy was founded in October 2014 by its CEO, Atsushi Shimizu, after completing a master's degree at the University of Tokyo and working in research and development for a major electrical equipment manufacturer, who invented the Magnus vertical axis wind turbine generator on his own.

Challenergy raised 1.2 billion yen from the Maesawa Fund. The company plans to use the funds raised to develop even larger Magnus wind turbines and to strengthen its hiring and organizational structure. The company plans to strengthen wind power generation in Japan, where typhoons frequently occur, and to accelerate the spread of stable electric power to non-electrified areas around the world, particularly islands.

Yusaku Maezawa, the representative partner of the Maezawa Fund, said the following:

“The earth looked both beautiful and fragile from space. I fully support Cirenergy's challenge to bring safe and secure electricity to all mankind with their next generation wind power generation machine.”

Challenergy’s company profile is here:
https://protocol.ooo/en/companies/challenergy