Helsing Aims for $18 Billion Valuation in $1.2 Billion Dragoneer-Led Round

Helsing is in advanced talks to raise $1.2 billion at a valuation of about $18 billion, according to the Financial Times. The round would push the Munich-based defense AI company past most of Europe’s other private tech firms and cement its position as the continent’s answer to Anduril.

Dragoneer Investment Group is leading the deal. Existing backer Lightspeed Venture Partners is co-lead. Several people familiar with the fundraising told the FT the timing has not been finalized but the plans are at an advanced stage.

The new valuation is nearly 30 percent higher in dollar terms than the €12 billion ($14 billion) figure Helsing reached in June 2025, when Spotify founder Daniel Ek‘s investment vehicle Prima Materia led a €600 million Series D. The latest round was oversubscribed multiple times, sources told the FT.

Dragoneer leads, Lightspeed co-leads, Europeans hold the cap table

While the round is led by US firms, Helsing remains roughly 80 percent European-owned, one person familiar with the fundraising told the FT. Existing investors include Accel, Plural, General Catalyst, Greenoaks, Sweden’s Saab, and BDT & MSD Partners. Helsing declined to comment. Dragoneer and Lightspeed did not respond to FT requests for comment.

The ownership split matters. Helsing has positioned itself as a sovereign European alternative to American defense AI firms. A US-led financing round at a sharply higher valuation tests that positioning. The 80 percent European ownership figure looks designed to head off questions about strategic dependence on American capital.

Combat record drives the valuation jump

The bigger valuation tracks Helsing’s transition from software vendor to drone manufacturer. We covered the company’s HX-2 attack drone when it launched in December 2024. The 12-kilogram (26-pound) X-wing munition has a range of 100 km (62 miles), can operate in GPS-denied environments, and uses onboard AI for terminal targeting. Helsing told the FT the HX-2 has been approved for frontline use by Ukraine’s military and is hitting Russian targets.

Oleksandr Kamyshin, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on strategic industries, recently praised Helsing’s work in Ukraine. That endorsement carries weight. Helsing’s first kamikaze drone, the HF-1, drew criticism inside Ukraine over performance and price. Politico reported in early 2026 that the HX-2 hit its target five times out of 14 during deployments in the Donbas, citing an internal German defense ministry briefing. Helsing pushed back, saying the system was facing intense Russian electronic warfare and had successfully struck a Russian tank, a logistics truck, and two howitzers.

In February 2026, the Bundestag budget committee approved an initial €269 million contract with Helsing for HX-2 loitering munitions, with framework options that could reach €1.46 billion over seven years. Lawmakers capped the combined long-term framework with rival Stark Defence at €2 billion and imposed reporting requirements on the Defense Ministry.

Anduril and Stark crowd the field

Helsing’s $18 billion target lands in a fast-rising defense tech market. Anduril Industries, founded by Palmer Luckey, has been in talks with investors about a round valuing it above $60 billion, the FT reported. In Europe, Helsing competes with Quantum Systems and Stark Defence, the Berlin-based startup backed by Peter Thiel. We reported in February on the political backlash inside Germany over Thiel’s role at Stark and the questions Bundestag members raised about contract size disparities between the two German suppliers.

Helsing has expanded beyond drones into autonomous underwater vessels and an unmanned aircraft built to fly alongside crewed fighters. The CA-1 Europa, which we covered at its September 2025 unveiling outside Munich, targets a first flight in 2027. The Spanish robot dog company Keybotic, which Helsing acquired in January 2026, added ground-based autonomous inspection to the portfolio.

Bubble warnings persist as money keeps flowing

Rheinmetall chief executive Armin Papperger has warned of a “bubble” in defense tech investment. The remark sits awkwardly alongside Rheinmetall’s exclusion from Germany’s loitering munition contract earlier this year after the company failed to deliver a working demonstrator. Other defense industry voices argue European governments still over-index on conventional tanks and fighter jets and should redirect capital toward unmanned systems.

The FT noted that the latest Helsing round was oversubscribed multiple times. That tells you which side of the bubble debate the growth funds and limited partners are choosing.

DroneXL’s Take

We have been covering Helsing’s expansion since the HX-2 launched at the end of 2024. The valuation arc since then is steep. €5 billion in July 2024. €12 billion in June 2025. Roughly $18 billion now. The market is pricing Helsing as if the HX-2 contract pipeline, the CA-1 Europa, the Keybotic acquisition, and the Saab and HENSOLDT integrations all deliver. That is a lot of execution riding on a young company.

What I keep coming back to is the ownership question. The FT story flags 80 percent European ownership as if it settles the sovereignty debate. It does not. A US-led growth round can shift how Helsing operates even if the cap table still tilts European, depending on the governance rights and information rights the lead investors negotiate. None of that was disclosed in the reporting.

The Bundeswehr’s seven-year HX-2 framework comes with reporting requirements to the budget committee, and lawmakers asked sharp questions in February about contract sizes and supplier ties to American billionaires when Daniel Ek’s role at Helsing was already on the table. That scrutiny does not vanish because the lead investor sits in San Francisco rather than Palo Alto.

The open question the FT story does not resolve is which investors get governance rights at this valuation, and whether the German framework includes any review trigger if foreign ownership shifts materially. Whether the next Bundestag budget committee review of Helsing’s contract surfaces this issue is the question to watch. Daniel Ek is still chairman. Prima Materia still owns the largest single block. Whether that holds after a $1.2 billion American-led growth round is a question Helsing’s government customers, not just its boycotting Spotify artists, will end up asking.

Source: Financial Times.

DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo.