In an era of fractured alliances, German startup Helsing has emerged as one of Europe’s fastest-growing companies, seeking to re-engineer the continent’s defense by blending software and steel, and developing smart drones and autonomous command systems for fighter jets.
Introduction: Re-engineering European defense
Inside a red-brick building in Munich, engineers working behind doors marked “maximum security” develop drone prototypes, flight simulators, and lines of code they believe will shape the next era of warfare. Helsing, a 4-year-old defense AI startup, has quietly emerged as one of Europe’s fastest-growing companies—and a symbol of a continent urgently re-engineering its defense in an era of fractured alliances.
The company’s pitch: Only by integrating software and steel on a large scale can Europe protect its sovereignty. Some of Helsing’s AI-equipped drones are used in Ukraine, and it is currently testing autonomous fighter jet command systems and underwater gliders that can detect Russian submarines.
The intersection of three trends
Helsing, one of Europe’s most valuable startups, has caught investors’ attention by positioning itself at the intersection of three trends: the continent’s rising military spending, the expanding role of military AI, and the race to achieve technological independence from the United States and China. “There is a growing sense of urgency in Europe right now. So we need to make big bets,” said Torsten Reil, co-founder of Helsing.
In a June funding round led by Prima Materia, the investment firm of Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek, Helsing raised 600 million euros. The round valued the company at 12 billion euros, according to a person familiar with the matter. It also transformed Helsing into a major European player alongside US defense tech firms like Anduril Industries and Palantir Technologies.
“Drone wall” and “autonomous mass”
Reil said the company wants to help Europe regain its “backbone” by building an “autonomous mass,” or deploying large numbers of inexpensive, AI-powered weapon systems. One practical application: to deter an increasingly aggressive Russia, Europe needs to establish a “drone wall” along its eastern flank consisting of about 100,000 drones. He said Helsing’s AI-powered HX-2 attack drone can do the job.
The HX-2 features onboard artificial intelligence to counter enemy electronic warfare, allowing it to stay on target even if it loses its data link. Using Helsing’s software, the drones can be deployed in swarms to overwhelm enemy defenses. In Ukraine, Helsing drones have destroyed Russian targets such as armored personnel carriers, logistics depots, and radar antennas, the company said.
Innovation in the air and sea
The company is also active in the maritime domain, developing an underwater glider that can patrol beneath the surface for up to three months. It can search for submarines or monitor vital undersea cables. Helsing trained the glider’s AI brain—codenamed Lura—much like large language models such as ChatGPT, except the input was terabytes of underwater sound. Using that data, the system can detect and classify objects with 90% accuracy.
In the air, Helsing recently conducted tests with a Gripen fighter jet made by Swedish company Saab, where its AI system flew the plane entirely on its own for a brief period in a combat scenario over Sweden and the Baltic Sea and executed maneuvers.
From humble beginnings to leadership
Founded in 2021 by an unlikely trio: Reil, a video game entrepreneur; Gundbert Scherf, a former German defense ministry official; and Niklas Köhler, a medical AI researcher. “At the time, no European venture capital investor wanted to talk to us, mainly for ethical reasons,” Reil said. The war in Ukraine and Russia served as an accelerator, with European officials now describing the conflict as the world’s first “AI war laboratory.”
Conclusion: The future of European defense
Despite recent successes, the company faces challenges, from mixed reactions to its systems to the difficulty of finding European supply chains for specialized components. But Helsing’s story is a testament to the rapid shift in European mindset. Defense is no longer just a matter of steel, but increasingly relies on software, data, and artificial intelligence. And in this new world, Helsing is betting it can be at the forefront, helping build a safer and more sovereign future for Europe.
