Helsing Raises €450M in Series C Round, Valued at €5 Billion
UPDATED JULY 11, 2024
Defense technology startup Helsing GmbH has announced a successful Series C funding round, raising €450 million, or approximately $488 million. General Catalyst spearheaded the investment, which also included contributions from Saab AB, a prominent Swedish aerospace and defense company, as well as Elad Gil, Accel, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Plural, and Greenoaks. Bloomberg reported that this latest funding round values Helsing at €5 billion, around $5.38 billion, a significant increase from its prior valuation.
Helsing, based in Germany, specializes in developing software solutions for the defense industry. The company’s platform is designed to visualize complex sensory data derived from various systems, such as planes and helicopters, streamlining the analysis process. The software is engineered to automatically refresh its visualizations as new information becomes available.
Beyond its core platform, Helsing’s product portfolio includes a variety of other offerings. Notably, the company has integrated its artificial intelligence software into the Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet. Furthermore, Helsing is slated to provide AI software for Future Combat Air Systems, a collaborative aircraft development program involving defense contractors from France, Germany, and Spain.
Prior to the funding announcement, Helsing unveiled Project Centaur, an internal AI initiative focused on developing advanced autonomous capabilities for air combat programs throughout Europe. Helsing revealed that the planned capabilities of Project Centaur will be powered by foundation models: large neural networks capable of performing a wide array of tasks. The project also leverages reinforcement learning, an AI approach where developers train neural networks by providing sample tasks and giving positive or negative feedback, which helps the AI improve its accuracy.
According to TechCrunch, Helsing plans to allocate the proceeds from its Series C round to enhance its AI capabilities and expand its workforce. Additionally, the company has earmarked €70 million for defense-related projects in the Baltic region and has established a subsidiary in Estonia as part of this initiative.
Helsing joins a growing number of defense technology startups that have secured substantial funding in recent years to develop AI-driven systems. For example, Shield AI Inc., which focuses on autonomous flight software for military aircraft, closed a $300 million investment last December. Earlier, Anduril Industries Inc. raised $1.48 billion from an investor consortium that included General Catalyst and Lightspeed, two of the participants in Helsing’s recent funding round.
