Last Updated: 13 July 2026
Helsing, a Munich-based startup that builds AI systems for the militaries of democratic nations, has closed a $1.8 billion Series E round at a valuation of $18 billion. Co-founded in 2021 by Torsten Reil, Gundbert Scherf, and Niklas Köhler, the company develops software and autonomous hardware for armed forces. Its products span AI strike drones, battlefield decision support tools, and electronic warfare systems, all designed to work across air, land, sea, and space.
The round comes at a time when European defence spending is rising faster than at any point in decades. Military spending across Europe grew by 14 percent in 2025 to reach $864 billion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. EU member states' combined defence budgets have nearly doubled since 2021, climbing from €218 billion to an estimated €381 billion in 2025. Germany alone increased its military spending by 24 percent to $114 billion. Governments across the continent are now looking for AI tools to upgrade ageing equipment and fill gaps in their capabilities, and defence technology startups are attracting capital at a pace that would have been difficult to imagine five years ago.
New and existing investors participated in the round, including Dragoneer Investment Group, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Disruptive, Iconiq, Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, JPMorganChase, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), General Catalyst, Plural, and Stepstone. Investor demand significantly exceeded the available allocation, the company said.
European governments are not just spending more on defence. They are rethinking how they buy and deploy military technology altogether. For decades, defence procurement has been dominated by large contractors that build hardware over long, multi-year cycles. The shift now taking place favours companies that can deliver systems where software does the heavy lifting, handling tasks like real-time sensor analysis, target identification, and electronic warfare, and then update those systems quickly. That is the space Helsing occupies. It goes some way toward explaining how a five-year-old company has reached a valuation that would normally belong to an established defence contractor.
Other European defence tech companies are also growing. German drone maker Quantum Systems raised €180 million in November 2025, and Lisbon-based Tekever reached unicorn status in May 2025 with a valuation above £1 billion. Helsing, though, remains the most highly valued defence startup in Europe by a wide margin. Its contracts span several NATO-aligned nations, including Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Estonia, and Ukraine, where its AI-guided HX-2 drones have been used on the front lines.
The new capital will go toward developing and integrating AI platforms into the defence systems of Helsing's growing list of partner nations, the company said. In practice, that means expanding a product range that already includes autonomous combat aircraft, underwater surveillance drones, battlefield software, and electronic warfare systems. It also means deepening partnerships with governments and established defence manufacturers.
Recent activity gives a sense of that direction. In June 2026, Helsing signed a partnership with EURENCO to work on a European strike drone capability. That same month, it formed a space joint venture with OHB. Earlier, in 2025, the company collaborated with Mistral AI on AI models for its defence platform and partnered with Loft Orbital on a satellite constellation for defence. Helsing has also been building out its manufacturing presence, opening production facilities in Estonia for its HX-2 drones.
Helsing was founded in March 2021 in Munich by three people with very different backgrounds. Torsten Reil, who serves as Co-CEO, started his career in computational biology before founding NaturalMotion, a company that built lifelike character animations using AI and physics. Zynga acquired NaturalMotion in 2014. Gundbert Scherf, also Co-CEO, came from the German Ministry of Defence. Niklas Köhler, the company's President and Chief Product Officer, is a machine learning engineer. According to Reil, Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 was part of the motivation behind starting Helsing.
The company describes itself as software-first. Its AI systems pull in data from radars, drones, infrared sensors, satellites, and other sources, then process it in real time so military commanders get a clearer picture of what is happening on the battlefield. The product lineup includes Altra, a software platform for reconnaissance and strike coordination on land; the HX-2, an AI-guided strike drone that can navigate without GPS and resist electronic jamming; the CA-1 Europa, an autonomous combat aircraft; SG-1 and Lura, underwater autonomous systems built for long-duration maritime surveillance; Cirra, an AI system for electronic warfare; and Centaur, an AI co-pilot that has been tested in real-world aerial combat scenarios with the Saab Gripen fighter jet.
Helsing operates across Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and Estonia. The board is co-chaired by Daniel Ek, the founder and Executive Chairman of Spotify, and Tom Enders, the former CEO of Airbus. Other board members include Jeannette zu Fürstenberg and Denis Mercier. The company sells its technology exclusively to democratic governments and describes its internal ethics processes as central to how it operates.
With this latest round, Helsing has raised over $3 billion in total. The investor list is worth noting because it mixes venture capital firms with large institutional investors and pension funds, a combination that signals how quickly defence technology has gained credibility with the kind of capital that once flowed almost exclusively into enterprise software and consumer tech. The company said it remains predominantly European-owned despite the growing share of American and Canadian investors.
The fundraising path has been steep. Helsing raised €102.5 million in a Series A in late 2021, led by Prima Materia, the investment vehicle of Daniel Ek. A €209 million Series B followed in 2023, led by General Catalyst. In July 2024, the company closed a €450 million Series C with participation from General Catalyst, Elad Gil, Accel, Saab, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Plural, and Greenoaks, at a valuation of roughly €5 billion. A €600 million Series D arrived in June 2025, led by Prima Materia, pushing the valuation to €12 billion. The $1.8 billion Series E now takes that figure to $18 billion.
Key investors in the Series E include Dragoneer Investment Group, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Iconiq, Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, General Catalyst, and Plural. Existing backers Prima Materia, Accel, and Greenoaks also remain on the cap table.
