Europe's Defence Tech Surge
Berlin's Stark Defence Raises €500M, Valued at €3.5B to Accelerate European Defence Production
Key Points
The €500 million round values Stark at €3.5 billion, and the company says it has now raised more than €660 million in total, underscoring rapid upscaling for Europe’s defence tech sector. The flagship Virtus loitering munition has been deployed in Ukraine and can be assembled in about ten minutes.
The vast majority of the new capital—over 80%—is earmarked for R&D and manufacturing, with Stark planning to build new electronic warfare research facilities and scale production to thousands of systems per month.
Germany’s February contracts awarded Stark (alongside Helsing) roughly €269 million each for kamikaze drones to equip the Bundeswehr, with framework agreements potentially lifting total value to about €1 billion per company.
Stark has expanded beyond Germany into the UK and Sweden, including a 40,000-square-foot production facility in Swindon, while also pursuing other European sovereign defence projects and acquisitions such as the Berlin-based Pleno autonomous navigation software firm.
Berlin-based drone startup Stark Defence has raised €500 million in a new funding round, valuing the company at €3.5 billion, according to The Next Web. The round was led by Sequoia Capital and Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, with the NATO Innovation Fund and Project A also participating. Founded just two years ago, Stark has now raised more than €660 million in total.
CEO Uwe Horstmann said the challenge for Europe is no longer innovation — it's scale. "This financing is a €500m commitment to Europe's defence industrial base," he said. More than 80% of the new capital will go directly to R&D and manufacturing, with a goal of producing thousands of drone systems per month.
From Zero to €3.5 Billion in Two Years
Stark was founded in January 2024 by Florian Seibel and Johannes Schaback in Berlin. By August 2024, it had closed a $62 million Series A led by Sequoia Capital. Less than 18 months later, its valuation has jumped to €3.5 billion, The Next Web reported. That speed is nearly unheard of in the defence sector.
Sequoia partner Luciana Lixandru said: "In less than two years, they have gone from an idea to delivering systems across multiple domains. Few companies execute at this speed." Stark's flagship product, the Virtus loitering munition — sometimes called a kamikaze drone — has a 130km range, a 90-minute flight time, and a 5kg warhead. It has already been deployed in Ukraine and can be assembled in about ten minutes.
Germany Awards Stark Nearly €1 Billion in Drone Contracts
In February 2026, Germany's Bundestag approved an initial €269 million contract for Stark's Virtus drones to equip the Bundeswehr, according to Insider Paper. The deal was awarded alongside a matching contract for rival AI defence firm Helsing. Framework agreements attached to the deal could push the total value to roughly €1 billion per company.
The Bundestag did cap the long-term framework at €1 billion — down from an original ceiling of €2.86 billion — signalling a desire for tighter parliamentary oversight. The contracts followed Germany's broader post-2022 rearmament push, which accelerated after the invasion of Ukraine.
UK and Sweden Plants Signal a Pan-European Push
Stark has expanded well beyond Germany. In November 2025, it opened a 40,000-square-foot production facility in Swindon, UK, creating more than 100 high-skilled jobs. The UK site was enabled by the Trinity House Agreement, a UK-Germany pact on joint battlefield technology development. In January 2026, Stark opened a Stockholm office focused on electronic warfare research.
The company also acquired Pleno, a Berlin-based firm that builds autonomous navigation software for environments where GPS is jammed or unavailable. That kind of technology is critical on modern battlefields, where GPS jamming is routine. Stark plans to build new electronic warfare research facilities as part of its latest spending plan.
Peter Thiel's Stake Stirs Political Unease in Berlin
Peter Thiel's involvement through Founders Fund has become a flashpoint in German politics. German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius voiced "unease" about Thiel's influence and asked whether he holds a "blocking minority" — a share large enough to veto key decisions — according to the Insider Paper. Some German MPs want answers before the company gets deeper access to Bundeswehr contracts.
Green Party MP Sebastian Schäfer was more blunt. "I don't want to rely on shareholders that want to end our European democracies," he said. The concern reflects a wider tension: Europe is racing to build a sovereign defence industry, but much of the capital funding that race comes from US investors with their own political ties. Stark has not publicly addressed what governance rights Thiel holds.
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