Helsing GmbH

Helsing started in Munich in 2021 with an unusual pitch for Europe: that the decisive advantage in modern conflict comes from the code processing sensor data rather than from the platform carrying the sensor. Torsten Reil, Gundbert Scherf and Niklas Koehler built the company around that idea, with Spotify founder Daniel Ek as chairman and early backer. Capital followed quickly. A 100 million euro Series A in 2021 became a 209 million euro round in 2023, then 450 million in 2024 at a 5 billion euro valuation, 600 million in 2025, and a 1.8 billion dollar round in July 2026 that valued the business at roughly 18 billion dollars. Around 900 people worked there by the end of 2025, spread across sites in Germany, the United Kingdom and France, and the company now describes itself as a manufacturer as much as a software house.

The software remains the spine of the portfolio. Altra is the reconnaissance and strike layer, fusing feeds from ground sensors, drones and radar into one picture and passing targets through to effectors, and it has been used operationally in Ukraine. Centaur is the autonomy stack for air combat, trained in simulation to fly and fight an aircraft against a human opponent. Cirra works the electromagnetic spectrum, classifying emitters and cueing jamming faster than a crew can. Germany selected Cirra for the Eurofighter EK, the escort jamming variant, in a contract worth roughly 258 million euros alongside Saab's German arm and sitting inside a programme valued above a billion. Helsing also supplies AI infrastructure into the Future Combat Air System, the Franco German Spanish next generation fighter effort, and in 2026 took a 580 million euro award tied to combat fighter system work.

Hardware arrived later and moved fast. The HF-1 and HX-2 are X-wing loitering munitions with onboard vision and terminal guidance that keeps working when the radio link drops, cheap enough to be expended in numbers. Ukraine ordered 4,000 HF-1 airframes and then 6,000 HX-2, with output running at several hundred units a month. In June 2025 Helsing bought Grob Aircraft, the Tussenhausen trainer and light aircraft builder, which brought certified airframe manufacturing in house. That plant is where the CA-1 Europa is taking shape, an autonomous combat aircraft of about four tonnes maximum takeoff weight flown by Centaur, with first flight targeted for 2027. The maritime line came from the October 2025 purchase of Blue Ocean. SG-1 Fathom is a low cost underwater glider built to loiter on the seabed for months and drift on battery power, listening. Its acoustic AI, Lura, classifies submarine and surface contacts onboard rather than shipping raw audio back to a shore station, and the pair completed at-sea trials during 2025. The common thread is mass produced cheaply, made useful by software, and built inside Europe for customers who want the supply chain there too.