Goldman Backs Drone Startup Helsing at $18 Billion Valuation

Helsing has raised a financing round at a valuation of $18 billion from investors including the growth equity arm of Goldman Sachs Alternatives, cementing its status as Europe’s largest defense startup.

(Bloomberg) — Helsing has raised a financing round at a valuation of $18 billion from investors including the growth equity arm of Goldman Sachs Alternatives, cementing its status as Europe’s largest defense startup. The Munich-based company finalized a $1.8 billion Series E financing from a range of investors, including Dragoneer Investment Group LLC, Iconiq, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and JPMorgan Chase & Co., it said in a statement Monday.

“The company remains predominantly European-owned, underscoring its deep roots in Europe,” Helsing said. Helsing has gained prominence since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a conflict that’s pushed the continent to commit huge sums to rearmament. Formed in 2021, the startup began providing artificial intelligence software for weapons and has since expanded into producing drones, maritime vessels and other machinery.

It competes with a raft of other venture capital-backed firms that are vying against established defense suppliers for government contracts. Helsing said several existing investors also participated in the round, including Lightspeed Venture Partners, General Catalyst and Plural. In Germany, Helsing received a €270 million government order for its drones earlier this year and a separate €223 million contract to develop experimental combat software was approved this month.

The company has offices in Germany, the UK, France and the Baltics, in a bid to become a pan-European defense contractor. In June 2025, Helsing raised €600 million in a round led by Prima Materia, the fund from Spotify Technology SA founder Daniel Ek, one of Helsing’s earliest backers. The company didn’t share its valuation at the time.

Helsing recently overhauled its internal share program from an employee stock option plan to a so-called virtual stock option plan, leading some staff to contact lawyers for advice on how to oppose the policy, Bloomberg reported last week. —With assistance from Christina Kyriasoglou and Yazhou Sun. (Updates with German contracts in sixth paragraph.)