Helsing

Company research

Public company, workplace, funding, and market signals

Updated Aug 5, 2026

Overview

Helsing is a Munich-founded, software-native European defence company building AI-enabled software, autonomous systems and software-defined hardware for democratic governments and defence-industry partners. Its systems fuse data from sensors and platforms to support real-time operational decisions while retaining human responsibility.

Primary product

An AI-enabled defence platform spanning Altra battlefield recce-strike software, Cirra electronic-warfare AI, Centaur autonomous air-combat software, HX-2 and HF-1 strike drones, SG-1/Lura underwater systems, and CA-1 Europa autonomous aircraft.

Founded

2021

Headquarters

Munich, Germany

Team size

500–600 (public directory/LinkedIn-visible estimates; not company-disclosed)

Work style

Hybrid

Industry

Defence technology and software development

Sub-industry

AI-enabled autonomous systems, military software, robotics and defence manufacturing

Offices

Munich, Germany

Berlin, Germany

London, United Kingdom

Paris, France

Tallinn/Estonia presence

Stockholm, Sweden

United States (West Virginia site selected in 2026)

Business model

Business-to-government defence procurement

Long-term military systems-development and integration contracts

Software licensing and platform integration

Unit sales of autonomous defence hardware

Industrial partnerships and government-funded programmes

Funding

Stage

Series E / late-stage private company

Total raised

$2.7B

Latest round

Series E · Jul 2026

Latest amount

$1.8B

Series E

Jul 2026 · Not publicly specified; new and existing investors participated

$1.8B

Series D

Jun 2025 · Prima Materia

$693.3M

Series C

Jul 2024 · General Catalyst

$487M

Series B

Sep 2023 · General Catalyst

$222.3M

Series A

Nov 2021 · Prima Materia

$118.8M

People & investors

Leadership

Gundbert Scherf

Co-Founder and Co-CEO

Torsten Reil

Co-Founder and Co-CEO

Niklas Köhler

Co-Founder, President and Chief Product Officer

Dr. Antoine Bordes

Chief Scientist

Anita Szarek

Chief Financial Officer

Johannes Boie

Chief Marketing Officer and Communications

Sam Rogerson

Chief Operating Officer

Dr. Robert Fink

Chief Technology Officer

Andriy Shevchenko

Managing Director for Ukraine

Investors

Dragoneer Investment Group

Elad Gil

General Catalyst

Goldman Sachs Alternatives

Greenoaks

JPMorganChase

Lightspeed Venture Partners

Work & culture

Mission-driven and explicitly ethics-focused. Helsing emphasizes first-principles thinking, speed, field evidence, inclusiveness, critical discussion, and doing what is right. Engineering writing describes a mostly co-located, asynchronous, low-meeting operating style; the company encourages debate about human-in-the-loop AI and conducts regular ethics workshops.

Work style

Hybrid

Visa sponsorship

Limited

Compensation

Public job materials do not provide a consistent company-wide salary or equity range. Compensation signals are therefore unavailable; role-specific eligibility, relocation and national-security-clearance requirements are prominent, and defence/export-control constraints may limit hiring eligibility.

Benefits

One-year Helsing x ada fellowship with sponsorship and mentorship

Ethics workshops and mission-focused work

Collaborative pan-European offices

Engineering onboarding and open-source testing workshop

Professional/community events including Rust and robotics activities

Product & market

Pricing

Not publicly disclosed; bespoke government procurement, development contracts, integration programmes and hardware/unit procurement rather than published SaaS pricing.

Differentiators

—Software-native approach to defence rather than legacy-platform-first development
—Integration across drones, aircraft, underwater systems, radar, satellites and other sensors
—Sovereign European ownership and focus on democratic-government customers
—AI-enabled systems designed for GPS-denied and electronically contested environments
—Combination of proprietary AI software with scalable autonomous hardware and resilience manufacturing
—Operational partnerships and field feedback, including Ukraine
—Stated emphasis on auditable AI, ethics and human responsibility

Technology

Artificial intelligence and machine learning

Computer vision

Sensor fusion

Autonomous systems and robotics

Embedded AI

Electronic-warfare systems

GPS/GNSS-denied navigation

Real-time operational data integration

Rust

Python/PyTorch

Docker

Kubernetes/cloud infrastructure

Terraform

GraphQL

Git

Prometheus

MLflow

Customers

German Bundeswehr and German defence ministry

Ukraine’s armed forces and Ukrainian defence institutions

Saab / Saab Germany and Swedish Defence Materiel Administration

European NATO and allied government defence customers

UK Royal Navy (reported SG-1/Lura undersea-autonomy work)

Rheinmetall, Airbus Defence and Space, MBDA Germany, Hensoldt and Rohde & Schwarz as partners/integration ecosystem

Competitors

Anduril

Shield AI

Palantir

Rheinmetall

Airbus Defence and Space

BAE Systems

Thales

Auterion

Harmattan AI

Preligens

Scale & contact

Estimated revenue

$10M–$50M annually; Sacra estimated $10.4M for 2023, while a separate company-directory estimate lists $4M. Helsing does not publicly disclose current revenue, so this is low-confidence.

Estimated monthly visits

209.4K

Traffic estimate as of Aug 2026

Signals & risks

Other

Jan 2026

Trade reporting described pauses or field-trial concerns around some HX-2 procurement activity, including reported accuracy issues; details and operational significance are not fully independently verified.

Source

Other

Jun 2026

A reported €580 million German combat-cloud/CFSN programme involved national-security procurement and parliamentary scrutiny, creating execution, political and customer-concentration risk; Helsing declined comment.

Source

Other

Jul 2026

The $1.8 billion Series E and $18 billion valuation imply substantial execution and valuation risk for a rapidly scaling private defence company, though this is not a distress signal.

Source

Latest news

Helsing raises $1.8 billion in Europe’s biggest defense-startup round

Defense News · Jul 2026

Helsing announced a $1.8 billion Series E at an $18 billion valuation, its largest disclosed financing and a major expansion of European defence-AI capital.

European defencetech leader Helsing secures $1.8B Series E at $18B valuation

Tech.eu · Jul 2026

Reports investor participation and describes the company’s AI software, strike drones and underwater systems.

Helsing lands Germany’s €580M combat-cloud contract

The Next Web · Jun 2026

Reports Germany’s proposed CFSN combat-cloud programme linking fighters, drones, satellites and sensors, with Helsing as software/autonomy contractor.

German defence start-up Helsing raises 600 million euros in latest investment round

Reuters · Jun 2025

Reuters reported Helsing’s €600 million Prima Materia-led financing and confirmed participation by Lightspeed, Accel, Plural, General Catalyst and Saab.

Defense AI startup Helsing raises $487M Series C

TechCrunch · Jul 2024

Helsing confirmed its €450 million Series C, led by General Catalyst, alongside Baltic expansion plans and a reported approximately €4.95 billion valuation.

Careers Company/team/about Contact Developer portal Engineering blog Homepage LinkedIn company Newsroom Open jobs Products

SourcesHelsing company/about Helsing homepage/products Helsing careers Helsing blog Reuters: 2025 financing TechCrunch: Series C Defense News: Series E LinkedIn company Sacra company analysis

Jobs and careers at Helsing

157 jobs at Helsing

Chief of Staff, S&O (AUS)

On-site

Market

Canberra

Today

On-site

Full-time