Helsing raises $1.8 billion, valuing the maker of Ukraine's HX-2 strike drones at $18 billion
The largest round a European defense startup has ever raised lands with a heavily American investor syndicate, even as Helsing insists it stays European-owned and keeps arming Ukraine's front.
The largest round a European defense startup has ever raised lands with a heavily American investor syndicate, even as Helsing insists it stays European-owned and keeps arming Ukraine's front.
Helsing raised $1.8 billion in a Series E that values the Munich company at $18 billion, CNBC reported Monday. It is one of the largest rounds a European startup has closed.
The syndicate leans American. JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Canadian pension fund CPP Investments, Lightspeed, Iconiq and Dragoneer joined new and existing backers, according to Reuters. Demand "significantly exceeded the available allocation," Helsing said. The valuation is up about 50% since spring, per Handelsblatt, which puts the firm back ahead of Neura Robotics as Germany's most valuable startup.
Helsing has stopped calling itself a startup. Founded in 2021 and past 1,000 staff, it now uses the label "neo prime," a software-first rival to hardware houses like Rheinmetall, Yahoo Finance wrote, citing DPA. The line has widened well past drones: the HX-2 loitering munition, the Centaur fighter-jet AI, the SG-1 Fathom underwater glider, and the CA-1 Europa combat aircraft it began building after buying Grob Aircraft.
Helsing's HX-2 drones go to the Ukrainian army, and the company runs a screened plant in southern Germany that has shipped thousands of them east since late 2024, The New York Times reported last week. The plant can be broken down and moved in a day. Bloomberg flagged in January that Kyiv had paused further HX-2 orders over failures in front-line tests, a claim Helsing disputed.
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Subscribe Free →Anduril took $5 billion at a $61 billion valuation in May. Helsing is Europe's answer at $18 billion, funded largely by American money it vows to keep under European hands.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much did Helsing raise, and at what valuation?
Helsing raised $1.8 billion in a Series E that values the Munich firm at $18 billion, per CNBC and Reuters, one of the largest funding rounds ever closed by a European startup.
Who invested in the round?
Backers included JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Canadian pension fund CPP Investments, Lightspeed, Iconiq and Dragoneer, according to Reuters. Helsing says it remains predominantly European-owned despite the heavily American syndicate.
What does Helsing actually build?
Its core is AI software that controls unmanned systems, per Yahoo Finance citing DPA. The hardware runs from the HX-2 loitering drone to the Centaur fighter-jet AI agent, the SG-1 Fathom underwater glider and the CA-1 Europa unmanned combat aircraft.
How is Helsing connected to the war in Ukraine?
It supplies HX-2 strike drones to the Ukrainian army. The New York Times reported the company runs a screened plant in southern Germany, built to be dismantled within a day, that has shipped thousands of drones to Ukraine since late 2024.
How does this compare with Anduril?
US rival Anduril raised $5 billion at a $61 billion valuation in May, per CNBC. Helsing is framed as Europe's answer to Anduril and, after this round, the continent's best-funded defense-tech firm, according to Reuters.
AI-generated summary, reviewed by an editor. More on our AI guidelines.
Marcus Schuler
Marcus Schuler edits BattlePolicy, a daily defense-technology brief connecting the companies and capabilities behind modern war to the contest among Europe, the US, Russia, and China.