newcleo made its debut on the Nasdaq Global Select Market today, September 22, 2026, under the ticker NWCL. The company, founded in Paris in 2021 and focused on advanced lead-cooled modular reactors and nuclear fuel production from recycled nuclear waste, has closed its merger with SPAC NewHold Investment Corp III, raising approximately $247 million in gross proceeds.
The deal was approved by NewHold shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting held on September 17, 2026. The proceeds come from a $216 million PIPE — oversubscribed relative to its initial target — and $31 million drawn from NewHold’s trust account at closing. newcleo‘s pre-money valuation is set at approximately $2.4 billion. Beyond the $247 million already secured, up to an additional $75 million may become available through a forward purchase agreement already filed with the SEC on September 11.
Since the merger agreement was first announced, newcleo has raised an additional $20 million, bringing the company’s total capital raised to over one billion dollars. For a company founded just five years ago, this milestone signals a level of institutional investor confidence that is hard to overlook within Europe’s private nuclear sector.
The funds will be used to fuel growth across Europe and the United States. On the operational side, the immediate priority is completing the 10 MWth non-nuclear demonstrator in Italy — a key facility for validating the engineering solutions underpinning the lead-cooled reactor design. In parallel, the company will continue regulatory engagement with both U.S. and French nuclear safety authorities, a necessary step toward obtaining commercial licenses. The board of the newly listed newcleo will be chaired by Jeffrey Lyash, former President and CEO of the Tennessee Valley Authority and Ontario Power Generation, a leading figure in the North American nuclear industry.
The listing transforms newcleo from a European venture capital darling into a publicly traded company with direct access to U.S. capital markets. For a company aiming to bring its lead-cooled reactors and MOX fuel fabrication facilities to commercial scale, the timing could hardly be better — demand for clean nuclear energy is rising on both sides of the Atlantic. If the Italian demonstrator delivers the expected results, the path to a first commercial reactor will become far more tangible, and the Nasdaq listing will provide the financial tools to get there.
