Six Robotics secured €12 million in its first institutional funding round, led by DTCP Defence. This comes after the Norwegian Army had already started using its drone swarm software.

The company expanded from five to around 90 employees, relying only on friends-and-family funding before accepting any venture capital.

This funding round came just weeks after Germany’s Helsing was close to raising $1.2 billion at an $18 billion valuation, underscoring that Six Robotics is still at an earlier, smaller stage.

While most defence-tech founders raise capital based on a pitch deck and a promise, Christian Fredrik Eggesbø took a different approach. By the time Six Robotics secured its first institutional investment, the Norwegian Army was already operating its drones.

The Oslo-based startup completed a €12 million equity round led by DTCP Defence, with the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark, Copenhagen’s Scale Capital, and other private investors joining.

This is Six Robotics’ first institutional raise. The company says the funds will accelerate product development, expand customer deployments in Europe and allied defence markets, and support team growth.

“Collaborative autonomy will define the next decade of defence. Europe cannot afford to depend on others for the software that defines what its forces can do. That is what Six Robotics is for, and this round is how we accelerate it,” says Eggesbø.

Eggesbø, who previously served in the Norwegian Special Forces, started the company in 2023, according to the industry directory Defence Jobs. The company has grown to about 90 employees in Oslo, mostly with friends-and-family funding before this round.

Eggesbø adds, “We built Six Robotics from five people to almost 90 employees with friends and family funding. Now, for the first time, we have the backing to match our ambitions. DTCP, EIFO, and Scale Capital have already proven their value through the process itself, and I look forward to what we can build together.”

What Valkyrie does

Six Robotics makes Valkyrie, a software platform that allows a single operator to control a coordinated swarm of drones during a mission, rather than flying each drone separately. The platform handles autonomous mission planning, real-time task distribution, and onboard decision-making. It works with aircraft from different manufacturers, so customers are not limited to just one type of drone.

For example, instead of one operator flying a single drone, a soldier could deploy a swarm over a contested area. The software breaks down the search, identifies potential targets, and lets the human operator make the final decisions. Six Robotics calls its focus swarm autonomy as a force multiplier, targeting situations where jamming and disrupted communications make single-drone systems less effective.

The Norwegian Army has received and tested Valkyrie swarms, which were developed in close collaboration with the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, and has run joint exercises with Sweden and Finland. FFI has also signed a licensing agreement allowing Six Robotics to commercialise the technology more widely, though this was not mentioned in the funding press release.

Few defence software startups can show active military use before getting institutional investment, and Six Robotics uses this credibility as its main differentiator.

A €12M seed round in a market where an $18B competitor is poised to dominate

Six Robotics stands out from the rest of Europe’s drone sector. Munich’s Helsing, founded two years earlier, was close to raising $1.2 billion at an $18 billion valuation when this deal was announced. Portugal’s Tekever raised £400 million at a valuation above £1 billion in 2025, and Germany’s Quantum Systems secured €180 million at a valuation above €3 billion in November.

Compared to these numbers, Six Robotics’ €12 million seems modest.

But these companies have different business models. Helsing and Quantum Systems make their own hardware, like strike drones, underwater vehicles, and reconnaissance airframes. Six Robotics, on the other hand, focuses only on software. Valkyrie serves as the control layer for any drones a customer already owns, rather than competing to build airframes. This approach is more focused and needs less capital than Helsing’s hardware strategy, but it means Six Robotics must be great at integration and building trust, rather than showing off hardware.

The drone swarm systems market was worth about $3.18 billion in 2026 and is expected to reach $8.28 billion by 2030, growing at 27% each year as militaries move from single-pilot drones to coordinated, software-managed fleets. Venture capital investment in European defence tech hit a record $1.5 billion in the first nine months of 2025, more than 50% higher than all of 2024, according to Dealroom data reported by Bloomberg. Six Robotics is a small investment in a fast-growing sector, not a shrinking one.

DTCP leads the round through DTCP Defence, a €500 million fund the firm launched specifically for defence, security, and resilience technology. DTCP itself manages more than €3 billion in assets, supported by a team of over 60 professionals across Europe and the US.

“Software-defined autonomy and swarming at scale are among the most technically challenging areas in modern defence, and Six Robotics is one of the few European teams with the capability to build at this level. Their software-first approach enables interoperability across platforms while giving defence organisations greater operational flexibility,” says Ole Aguirre, partner at DTCP Defence.

EIFO, Denmark’s state-owned export and investment fund, joined with an eye on expanding into the Danish market.

“The company’s hardware-agnostic drone swarming and autonomy platform is at the forefront of the technologies that will be decisive in the future of warfare. We wish to strengthen the Nordic collaboration and support that the company plans to set up activities in Denmark later in 2026,” adds Sara Sande, managing director, partner, and head of direct thematic venture at EIFO.

Scale Capital, the third investor in the round, framed its bet as a wager on the broader Norwegian ecosystem. “Norway has emerged as one of the most exciting defence technology and robotics ecosystems in Europe, and Six Robotics is one of the best examples of why. What the team has built already in this extremely critical space is remarkable, and we’re excited to help scale it internationally,” concludes Lars Jensen, founding partner at Scale Capital.

Helsing’s expected $18 billion valuation shows what’s possible for a European defence software company that can scale. Six Robotics has something Helsing didn’t have at this stage: a real customer using its drones, not just a development plan.

The big question is whether this advantage will help Six Robotics win over NATO countries before a better-funded rival does. That’s the challenge its €12 million investment needs to solve.