Helsing, the Munich-based defence AI company, announced Monday it has closed an $1.8 billion Series E funding round, valuing the firm at $18 billion. The round is one of the largest ever raised by a European startup and cements Helsing's position as the continent's best-funded defence technology company.
The round drew both new and returning backers, including Dragoneer Investment Group, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Disruptive, Iconiq, the Growth Equity arm of Goldman Sachs Alternatives, JPMorganChase, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, General Catalyst, Plural, and Stepstone. Existing investors Prima Materia, Accel, and Greenoaks also returned, the same group that backed Helsing's €600 million Series D in June 2025.
Helsing said investor demand significantly exceeded the available allocation, which it points to as evidence of growing confidence in AI-driven, software-defined defence technology. Despite the influx of American capital, the company said it remains predominantly European-owned.
The board is unchanged. Daniel Ek and Tom Enders continue as co-chairmen, with Jeannette zu Fürstenberg and Denis Mercier remaining as members alongside the company's founders.
From battlefield software to strike drones
Helsing was founded in 2021 by Torsten Reil, Gundbert Scherf, and Niklas Köhler. The company started by building software that fuses data from drones, radar, satellites, and cameras into a single real-time operational picture, letting armed forces detect threats and make faster decisions. Its Altra platform is designed to support human commanders rather than replace them, integrating with existing military hardware from multiple manufacturers.
In the years since, Helsing has pushed beyond software into hardware. Its HX-2 loitering munition is built to operate in GPS-denied and electronically contested environments, and the company has also developed underwater surveillance systems for protecting maritime infrastructure. Helsing has supplied drones to Ukraine with backing from the German government, and it works with major European defence contractors including Rheinmetall, Kongsberg, and Saab.
A valuation on a steep climb
Helsing's valuation has jumped fast. The company was valued at roughly €4.9 billion in a Series C round in July 2024, then €12 billion in last year's Series D, and now $18 billion with this Series E. That trajectory places it among the largest startup financings ever completed in Europe.
It's also part of a wider surge in European defence-tech investment following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Governments across the continent have ramped up military spending, and investors have followed. German drone maker Quantum Systems raised $1.2 billion at an $8 billion valuation just last week. Germany's Stark raised €500 million in June at a reported €3.2 billion valuation, and Finland's ICEYE raised €450 million the month before that.
Helsing's closest competitor is the American startup Anduril, which raised $5 billion in May at a $61 billion valuation, more than three times what Helsing is now worth. In Europe, Quantum Systems and Portugal's Tekever are the nearest comparisons, though both remain a fraction of Helsing's size.
What the money is for
Helsing said the new funding will go toward developing and integrating new AI platforms across the defence capabilities of what it calls its growing number of partner nations. The pitch, in short, is convincing European governments to buy sovereign AI rather than import it from the US.
