Helsing raises $1.8B in Europe's biggest defense funding round

German defense AI company Helsing closed a $1.8 billion Series E on July 13, valuing the company at $18 billion and marking the largest funding round ever for a European defense-technology startup. Investors including Dragoneer, Lightspeed Venture Partners, General Catalyst and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board backed the oversubscribed round. Days later Helsing said it will build its first US manufacturing facility in Martinsburg, West Virginia, a $50 million plant to produce its AI-enabled HX-2 strike drone at a rate of more than 2,000 units a month once fully operational.