Helsing Raises $1.8 Billion at $18 Billion Valuation for AI Defense Tech

Funding Surge and Market Valuation

Helsing’s latest capital injection confirms its status as a major player in the European defense technology sector. According to official announcements, the $1.8 billion round drew participation from both new and existing investors, including U.S. investment bank JPMorgan Chase and venture capital funds such as Lightspeed Venture Partners and Iconiq. The company stated that “investor demand significantly exceeded the available allocation, reflecting strong and growing confidence in AI-driven and software-defined defence technology.”

Helsing bills itself as a hardware and software platform for defense. It manufactures drones and underwater surveillance weapons, while building artificial intelligence and autonomous software to power these military applications. The Munich-headquartered firm has positioned itself as a European champion in defense, benefiting from a renewed focus from Europe on building more sovereign capabilities in technology and defense. “The company remains predominantly European-owned, underscoring its deep roots in Europe,” Helsing said in its press release.

Operational Expansion and Leadership Changes

As Helsing scales, it is tightening its focus on the Ukrainian market. The company recently appointed Andriy Shevchenko—former Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine, diplomat, and former People’s Deputy—as Managing Director in Ukraine. Helsing co-founder and co-CEO Gundbert Scherf stated that Shevchenko’s experience in politics, diplomacy, and defense will help the company expand its presence in Ukraine. Shevchenko himself noted that modern warfare demonstrates the crucial role of software, artificial intelligence, and the speed of implementation of new technologies in the military, calling Helsing one of the leaders of this transformation.

Prior to his new appointment, Shevchenko served as Ukraine’s Ambassador to Canada from 2015 to 2021, Ukraine’s representative to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), and in 2023, as Deputy Minister of Defense. He was also elected as a People’s Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada three times. Helsing has been operating in Ukraine since early 2024 and is expanding its local team. Since early 2026, the company has delivered thousands of HX-2 strike drones to the Ukrainian Defense Forces with its own AI system.

Corporate Restructuring and Incentive Schemes

The company’s rapid financial ascent has necessitated structural changes. In June 2025, Helsing altered its legal registration from a German entity to a European one, a move described as a common precursor to an IPO. That legal shift forced the startup to adjust its incentive scheme. In an emailed statement, Helsing said “the incentive scheme had to be adjusted to ensure that former employees holding ESOPs could continue to participate in the company’s growth.” The company reported that a “vast majority” of workers accepted the change to the new compensation structure, which is called a virtual stock option plan, or VSOP.

The shift drew commentary from Frederik Mijnhardt, who runs Secfi, a firm that helps startup founders and employees manage their wealth. “Europe is notoriously hard around equity compensation with a myriad of rules and different tax implications,” Mijnhardt stated. “The simplicity of issuing a phantom stock versus a real stock is a big reason why companies implement them. But VSOPs are rarely better for the employee, with less formal rights and generally worse tax treatment.”

Rapid Growth and Strategic Origins

Helsing was founded in 2021 in Germany by video game entrepreneur Thorsten Reil, former German Defense Ministry official Gundbert Scherf, and AI researcher Niklas Köhler. The company rose to prominence as a leading European defense startup following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Initially, the company created AI software for armed forces, then launched attack drones in 2024. After that, it expanded into naval ships and larger planes, earning the label ‘neo-prime’—a modern defense firm offering a wide range of military hardware similar to Anduril. The latest funding round aims to accelerate the mission to develop and integrate entirely new AI platforms into the defense capabilities of its growing number of partner nations.

Find more reporting in our Technology section.