Helsing, Europe's largest defence-AI company, was in advanced talks to raise $1.2 billion at an $18 billion valuation, led by Dragoneer Investment Group with Lightspeed Venture Partners as co-lead, the Financial Times reported on 9 May1. Investor demand reportedly exceeded the original target several times, but the fundraising timetable remained undecided. The valuation sits roughly 30% above the €12 billion mark Helsing cleared in June 2025, and arrives weeks after the EU AGILE (Accelerated Government Innovation for Lethality and Effectiveness, the European Union's first single-company defence-tech fund) €115 million pilot opened single-company applications for the first time and Britain doubled its autonomous systems pledge to £4 billion.
Helsing's order book gives the price a floor. Germany awarded the company a €269 million initial contract for HX-2 one-way effector (loitering munition), with framework options taking the deal to €1.46 billion over seven years, and the HX-2 has been cleared for Ukrainian frontline use. Germany's combined Helsing and Stark (Munich-based drone manufacturer) suicide-drone awards now total €4.3 billion inside a wider €9 billion strike-drone shift. The capital is moving the way the contracts already moved.
Anduril is in parallel talks at a valuation above $60 billion2. The gap between the two companies, $18 billion against $60 billion plus, prices European defence-AI at roughly 30% of the US benchmark despite a more captive customer base in Berlin, Brussels, and Whitehall. The round is reportedly led by US capital but the equity stays approximately 80% European-owned, a structure that mirrors Australia's A$7 billion counter-drone commitment: Western governments are buying European production while US growth funds set the price.
The counter-view is that Helsing's revenue base, even read generously, supports a high single-digit multiple, not the mid-teens revenue multiple implied at $18 billion. Dragoneer's lead position signals the buyer disagrees, but oversubscription does not equal earnings.
