New funding: Zap Energy raised a $27.5 million Series B round to fuel development of its fusion reactor that “can become one of the key enablers for a sustainable global energy future,” according to its CEO Benji Conway. The tech: Founded in 2017, the Seattle-based startup has built a reactor that can stabilize plasma by using sheared flows — fluid flow caused by forces — versus magnetic fields. The idea is to reduce the cost of and shorten the path to low-carbon commercial fusion energy.