{"id":726840,"date":"2026-05-11T23:05:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T20:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/daniel-ek-backed-defense-tech-helsing-to-raise-1-2b-at-18b-valuation\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T23:05:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T20:05:12","slug":"daniel-ek-backed-defense-tech-helsing-to-raise-1-2b-at-18b-valuation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/daniel-ek-backed-defense-tech-helsing-to-raise-1-2b-at-18b-valuation\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel Ek-backed defense tech Helsing to raise $1.2B at $18B valuation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p id=\"speakable-summary\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Five-year-old European military drone startup <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/helsing.ai\/\">Helsing<\/a> is reportedly close to raising a new $1.2 billion round at about an $18 billion valuation. The round is expected to be led by Dragoneer and co-led by existing Helsing investor Lightspeed, the <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/0ca32fa3-cf28-4105-b1f9-ec5bc0c9158c?syn-25a6b1a6=1\">Financial Times reported.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Helsing last raised just under a year ago, in June 2025, in a deal that was led by billionaire Spotify founder Daniel Ek. That was a \u20ac600 million investment at an estimated\u00a0\u20ac12 billion valuation ($14 billion USD). So this new round is a step-up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While Helsing isn\u2019t the only European unicorn defense tech, it is by far the one that investors deem the most valuable. For instance, German drone maker Quantum Systems <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/aerospace-defense\/german-drone-maker-quantum-systems-triples-valuation-after-new-funding-round-2025-11-27\/\">raised \u20ac180 million in November<\/a>, which valued it at more than \u20ac3 billion. And a year ago, Lisbon-headquartered Tekever raised \u00a3400 million at a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tekever.com\/news\/tekever-confirmed-as-europes-newest-unicorn-as-it-invests-400m-in-the-uk-to-drive-ai-driven-defence\/\">valuation above \u00a31 billion.<\/a> Amid Russia\u2019s ongoing war in Ukraine, the proving ground for new technologies, autonomous defense startups have become a hot area for VCs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Helsing, Dragoneer, and Lightspeed could not be im<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a>tely reached for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMN63nwsw68G3Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/technology\/\" target=\"_blank\" >Technology<\/a><\/span> category.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/05\/11\/daniel-ek-backed-defense-tech-helsing-to-raise-1-2b-at-18b-valuation\/\" target=\"_blank\" >Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Five-year-old European military drone startup Helsing is reportedly close to raising a new $1.2 billion round at about an $18 billion valuation. The round is expected to be led by Dragoneer and co-led by existing Helsing investor Lightspeed, the Financial Times reported. Helsing last raised just under a year ago, in June 2025, in a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-726840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726840\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}