A model of the CA-1 Europa drone, manufactured by the defense contractor Helsing, is on display in front of the company’s booth at the International Aerospace Exhibition (ILA) at the Berlin ExpoCenter Airport.<\/p>\n
Sebastian Christoph Gollnow | Picture Alliance | Getty Images<\/p>\n
European defense startup Helsing<\/a> said Monday it has raised $1.8 billion in a funding round that values the German firm at $18 billion.<\/p>\n New and existing investors participated in the funding, including U.S. investment bank JPMorgan Chase and venture capital funds such as Lightspeed Venture Partners and Iconiq.<\/p>\n “Investor demand significantly exceeded the available allocation, reflecting strong and growing confidence in AI-driven and software-defined defence technology,” Helsing said in a press release.<\/p>\n Helsing bills itself as a hardware and software platform for defense. It makes drones and underwater surveillance weapons, and it builds artificial intelligence and autonomous software to power these military applications.<\/p>\n The Munich-headquartered firm has positioned itself as a European champion in defense, with its HX-2 drones among the systems that are being supplied to the Ukrainian army. Helsing has benefited from a renewed focus from Europe on building more sovereign capabilities in technology and defense. <\/p>\n “The company remains predominantly European-owned, underscoring its deep roots in Europe,” Helsing said in its press release. <\/p>\n The latest funding round will “accelerate Helsing’s mission to develop and integrate entirely new AI platforms into the defense capabilities of its growing number of partner nations,” the startup added.<\/p>\n Private market investors have been eager to back new age defense<\/a> companies. In the U.S., Helsing rival Anduril raised $5 billion<\/a> at a $61 billion valuation in May. Shield AI<\/a> and autonomous shipmaker\u00a0Saronic<\/a> are among some of the other startups that have raised funding recently. <\/p>\n