Munich-based defence startup Helsing has raised €600m in Series D funding led by Spotify cofounder Daniel Ek’s investment firm Prima Materia. The new raise values the startup at €12bn, reported by the Financial Times and confirmed by Sifted, making it among Europe’s most valuable startups and more than doubling its previous valuation.
Until late last year, four-year-old Helsing focused on only making AI software for the battlefield, but pivoted to additionally producing autonomous strike drones at the end of 2024. It also recently unveiled an underwater surveillance system.
Other investors in the new round include existing backers Accel, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Plural and General Catalyst, as well as Swedish defence prime Saab. The new round is a mix of traditional equity and other forms of financing, according to the FT.
The new funding round comes as fellow drone makers Quantum Systems, also based in Munich, and Portuguese Tekever recently hit unicorn status, with May funding rounds valuing them at €1bn or more. Helsing was valued at about €5bn in a €450m funding round last summer.
Interest and urgency around funding defence is increasing; since the start of 2025, the US has grown far more protectionist while the Russia-Ukraine war rages on. It’s prompted European VCs to more closely examine and make deals in defence tech, and has become one of the hottest topics in the VC world.
“There’s an enormous realisation that it’s really now AI, mass and autonomy that is driving the new battlefield,” Ek told the FT. “We can’t understate the implications of that for this conflict [in Ukraine] or really any conflict going forward.”
So far this year, Helsing has unveiled its first factory in Germany aiming to produce an additional 6,000 drones for Ukraine; it’s also struck deals including a partnership with French OpenAI challenger Mistral to develop LLMs for defence. The startup is working with governments including Germany, the UK and Estonia.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/helsing-fundraise-600m-daniel-ek/
