Hamburg's MuRay raises €7.1M, led by First Momentum Ventures and Marvel Fusion's Caelora, to scan thick metal parts with muons

TLDR

• MuRay, a Hamburg deeptech start-up, raised €7.1M: a €3.5M private round plus €3.6M of public funding.¹²
• First Momentum Ventures and Marvel Fusion's laser unit Caelora led the €3.5M private round.¹²
• Its muon beams image thick metal parts such as rocket engines, with a first industrial service planned for 2027.¹²

Hamburg start-up MuRay has raised €7.1M, made up of a €3.5M private round and €3.6M in public funding that includes a grant from the EU's Horizon Europe research programme, according to The Next Web and Startup City Hamburg.¹² The headline figure is therefore not all equity. First Momentum Ventures led the private round and Caelora, a laser company that spun out of German fusion start-up Marvel Fusion this year, co-led it.¹ Superangel VC, Nordic Science Investments, Mätch VC, Arcas VC and Tiny VC also took part.¹

MuRay says it uses muons, particles that pass through metal that blocks X-rays, to build 3D images of the inside of dense parts such as 3D-printed rocket engines and gas turbines. The company says X-rays reach only a few centimetres of steel while muons pass through more than a metre.¹ FinSMEs says the platform pairs laser-plasma-accelerator muon sources with particle detectors and AI software, and that the money will also fund a mobile imaging system built into a shipping container for on-site inspections.³ It lists the target uses as industrial quality checks, security and customs inspection and medical diagnostics, and says its main development partners "span the energy, defence, aerospace and security industries."³ The company is also in talks with international ports about spotting nuclear materials in cargo, according to The Next Web.¹

The founders, co-CEOs Andi Hektor and Kristjan Põder, grew the company out of DESY, the German particle physics centre in Hamburg, and launched it in 2025, coming out of stealth that November with €325,000 in early funding.¹ A first imaging service for industrial customers is planned for 2027 using DESY's existing electron beam, and a full system powered by a compact laser-driven accelerator is due in 2029.¹ With the German space agency DLR it has modelled a rocket engine inspection and plans a first real engine test in 2027.¹ Startup City Hamburg quotes Põder saying IFB Hamburg funds a joint project with Siemens Energy and that Airbus and other aerospace players are potential clients; these are plans and prospects, not contracts.²

On investors, Startup City Hamburg identifies Nordic Science Investments as an existing investor; the sources do not say which of the other participants are new.² First Momentum's portfolio page lists ISPTech, which makes non-toxic chemical propulsion for spacecraft, and QuantumDiamonds, which uses quantum sensors for chip inspection.⁴ Marvel Fusion launched Caelora in September 2026 as a wholly owned subsidiary to commercialise its high-energy laser technology, so the co-lead is a strategic backer rather than a financial fund.⁵ The sources do not give a valuation, the split of the private round between investors, or any customer revenue.¹²³

Why it matters: a €3.5M private round for an inspection technology aimed at rocket engines, turbines and cargo screening shows European deeptech investors and a laser maker backing dual-use industrial sensing before the company has sold a commercial scan.¹³⁵ The next test is whether the 2027 service and the first real engine inspection show the physics works as a production workflow.¹