Daniel Ek-backed defence startup Helsing to raise $1.2B at $18B valuation
Helsing, one of Europe's most highly valued defence tech startups, is closing in on a $1.2 billion funding round at an $18 billion valuation. TechCrunch reported that the round, led by a group of investors including Spotify founder Daniel Ek, marks the five-year-old company as the most highly valued defence startup in Europe.
Helsing's major funding events of the past 12 months include a 2025 autumn round closed at a $4.5 billion valuation and an early-2026 add-on linked to a strategic partnership. With the new $1.2 billion, Helsing's cumulative capital raised since inception will sit at around $2.5 billion.
The Munich-headquartered company builds AI-powered decision-support systems and unmanned aerial vehicles for the defence sector. Its flagship product is a platform named Altra, which fuses field data streams for military planners and outputs situational awareness reports. The company also operates its own unmanned aircraft programmes.
Daniel Ek became one of Helsing's principal backers in 2021 and joined its board. Ek's investment thesis has been described as adapting the growth approach that he pursued at Spotify in music technology to the European defence sector. Helsing has been described, particularly given its 2021–2026 trajectory, as a "European Palantir."
Helsing's growth has been supported chiefly by the post-2022 rise in European Union member-state defence budgets. The European Commission forecasts military R&D spending will grow about 12 percent annually over the 2025–2030 period. Germany, the United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands are among the principal customers Helsing has signed contracts with.
In 2026 specifically, Helsing signed a five-year framework contract with the UK Ministry of Defence. The agreement covers the deployment of the Altra platform at two Royal Air Force bases. Helsing is also reportedly in negotiations with the German Bundeswehr on a second drone-procurement contract.
The investment community is also weighing concerns about Helsing's valuation. The rapid rise in European defence-startup valuations has been described by some analysts as approaching "bubble territory." Investors familiar with the defence sector, including Bain Capital and Sequoia Capital, have said the latest round could be over-aggressive on price.
Helsing has responded to the critique by pointing to fast revenue growth. The company posted $380 million in revenue in fiscal year 2025, a 240 percent jump on 2024. CEO Gundbert Scherf told investor calls that the company is "targeting at least $700 million in revenue in 2026."
Ethical debate continues around Helsing's products. The AI-powered decision-support tools have been designed in ways that could affect the scope of human-judged decisions in military operations. The company has said its tools do not perform autonomous target selection and that all decision processes preserve a "legitimate chain of command." Civil society groups such as Amnesty International have called for new standards governing the oversight of automated decision-support systems.
The new round is being read as a marker of the size of the European defence tech market. According to Pitchbook data, Europe's defence tech ecosystem attracted $9.8 billion in funding in 2025, roughly three times the 2024 total. Helsing's move is widely cited as a template for the segment's expected growth over the coming years.