STARK (Stark Defence / SKD SE)
Berlin loitering-munition startup (SKD SE) making the Virtus one-way-attack drone and Minerva strike C2 for the Bundeswehr and NATO.
Background
STARK, the trading name of Berlin-registered SKD SE, was founded in 2024 to supply attack drones to European and NATO militaries after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Its co-founders include Florian Seibel, who earlier built rival German drone-maker Quantum Systems, and Johannes Schaback.
The company runs operations across Germany, Ukraine, Sweden and the UK, and opened a 40,000-square-foot production plant in Swindon, England, in 2025, with a research and engineering base in Munich.
Its flagship is Virtus, an electric VTOL loitering munition with a roughly 100 km strike radius and a 5 kg warhead, paired with Minerva, a command-and-control suite built for jamming-degraded conditions.
Uwe Horstmann, a Project A venture partner and reserve officer, was named chief executive in October 2025; Schaback is chief technology officer, while Seibel has stepped back from daily operations.
Linked records
Wired to the rest of BattlePolicy — the systems it builds in the Lexicon and the contracts it wins in the Procurement Tracker. Every link below is a record in our own datasets.
Financial footing
- ~$62M led by Sequoia at a ~$500M valuation (Aug 2025)
- ~EUR 500M (~$570M) co-led by Sequoia and Founders Fund at a EUR 3.5B+ valuation (Jun 2026), total raised now >EUR 660M
- Bundeswehr ~EUR 269M Virtus order — one of two awards in a ~EUR 540M medium-range loitering-munition package shared with Helsing (Feb 2026; for the 45th Armoured Brigade in Lithuania; frameworks could reach ~EUR 1B/firm)
- Virtus fielded by Ukrainian units
- Note: Virtus reportedly failed UK/German live-fire trials (four strikes, zero hits, Nov 2025, FT) and missed a Feb 2026 Kenya exercise
- Backers: Sequoia Capital (lead), Founders Fund / Thiel, 8VC, NATO Innovation Fund, In-Q-Tel, Project A, Doepfner Capital
STARK raised about $62M led by Sequoia Capital in August 2025 at a roughly $500M valuation, taking total funding past $100M.
On 23 June 2026 it closed a far larger round — about EUR 500M (~$570M) co-led by Sequoia and Peter Thiel's Founders Fund — at a valuation above EUR 3.5B (~$3.65-4B), per Bloomberg; total raised now exceeds EUR 660M. The company had reportedly sought EUR 300M at EUR 2.5B weeks earlier, so the close oversubscribed that target.
Major customers & contracts
Joined live from the Procurement & Contracts Tracker — real award/announcement records.
| Customer | System | Scale / detail | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northern European NATO member | Virtus drones | undisclosed | signed |
| United States | MK6 GEUS FY21 | MK6 GEUS FY21 | signed |
| United States | MK6 GUIDANCE GEUS FY23 | MK6 GUIDANCE GEUS FY23 | signed |
| Germany | Virtus loitering munition (Stark, Bundeswehr) | EUR 268 million | signed |
Further disclosed customers & programs (public reporting):
STARK's anchor customer is the German Bundeswehr. In February 2026 the Bundestag's budget committee approved an initial Virtus order worth roughly EUR 269M, one of two awards in a ~EUR 540M medium-range loitering-munition package shared with Munich rival Helsing, to equip Germany's 45th Armoured Brigade deploying to Lithuania.
Framework agreements could lift the value toward EUR 1B per supplier. Virtus has also been fielded by Ukrainian units. Rheinmetall was cut from the initial award after its competing drone slipped.
Leadership & contact surface
Leadership: Uwe Horstmann
Official site: https://stark-defence.com
Competitive position
STARK competes most directly with Helsing (HX-2 loitering munition, deeper AI integration, a far larger raise), Seibel's own Quantum Systems, and incumbent Rheinmetall. Its pitch is software-company speed, attritable cost and Silicon Valley capital.
The weakness is performance: Virtus reportedly failed to score a single hit across four strikes in November 2025 British/German live-fire trials (FT), and missed both attempts at a February 2026 exercise in Kenya, with one drone catching fire after a battery fault (Handelsblatt) — while Helsing's HX-2 hit its targets. Scaling production to contract volumes is unproven.
Battlefield relevance
Virtus has been deployed by Ukrainian forces against ground and strategic targets, and STARK keeps a Kyiv office working with Ukrainian units.
But the documented trial failures with German and British evaluators in late 2025 and early 2026 leave open how reliably the munition performs in contested conditions — a gap between the marketing and the demonstrated record that buyers are funding past rather than resolving.
Sources & verification
- The Next Web — Stark raises EUR 500M led by Sequoia and Founders Fund at EUR 3.5B+ (Jun 2026)
- Defence Industry Europe — German parliament approves EUR 540M LM procurement from Helsing and Stark (Feb 2026)
- Jerusalem Post — Helsing HX-2 hits targets as Virtus fails UK demo (FT-sourced, Nov 2025)
- Tech Funding News — Sequoia leads $62M round, valuing Stark at $500M (Aug 2025)