Eleven days in Munich.
In eleven July days, two Munich defense companies raised $3bn. Europe finally has a category it is winning, and it makes everyone slightly uncomfortable. Helsing, Quantum Systems, the August 2 clock, Station F, and ASML as hostage.
Europe finally found a category it is winning. Two Munich companies raised $3bn eleven days apart, and the money says it is no fluke.
In eleven July days, two Munich defense-AI companies raised over a billion dollars each. Helsing closed a $1.8bn series e at an $18bn valuation on July 13, the largest defense-startup round in European history, with Dragoneer, Lightspeed, Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, JPMorganChase, CPP Investments, General Catalyst, plural and StepStone on the cap table, and the company stressing it stays predominantly European-owned. That makes it the most valuable privately held defense-tech company in Europe, full stop, and drops it into the same sentence as America's Anduril and Shield AI.