Defense technology startup Helsing raises $1.8B at $18B valuation

German defense technology startup Helsing SE today announced that it has closed a $1.8 billion Series E investment.

The late-stage capital was provided by a group of 10 new and returning investors. JPMorganChase, General Catalyst, Lightspeed and Iconiq were among the participants. Helsing says it’s now valued at $18 billion.

Helsing’s flagship product is an autonomous jet aircraft called the CA-1 Europa. It’s 36 feet long with a maximum takeoff weight of four tons. According to the company, the drone has a relatively affordable design that lends itself to high-volume manufacturing.

The CA-1 Europa’s autonomous flight features are powered by a software platform called Centaur. Last year, Helsing tested the software by having it fly a fighter jet over the Baltic Sea. The company says that Centaur successfully completed two test flights alongside a second, human-piloted plane that acted as a simulated opponent.

Helsing claims that the software can be integrated into a plane in a few months. It uses reinforcement learning to adapt to new flight situations. Reinforcement learning is a popular AI technique that hones neural networks’ capabilities through trial and error. An AI is given a set of sample tasks, receives feedback on the accuracy of its output, and uses the feedback to refine its configuration.

The company offers Centaur alongside a second software platform called Altra. The platform can assemble data points from drones and other systems into a real-time picture of a given area. Additionally, Altra automates related tasks such as identifying objects of interest.

Helsing’s product portfolio also spans several other segments of the defense technology market.

The company sells a drone called the HX-2 Fathom that is significantly smaller than the CA-1 Europa and can cover up to 62 miles. It’s optimized to operate in the presence of electronic inteference. The HX-2 can send the data that it collects to Helsing’s Altra data processing software.

Helsing also offers the HX-2 alongside a miniature autonomous submarine called the SG-1 Fathom. It says hundreds of SG-1 Fathoms can be deployed in a given area to collect detailed data about underwater environments. The collected data is processed by an onboard neural network the company refers to as a LAM, or large acoustic model.

Rounding out Helsing’s product portfolio is a hardware module known as the Cirra. It enables aircraft to study ground-based radars by analyzing the radio signs they emit. Like Helsing’s other systems, it uses AI to automate certain data processing tasks.

Last year, the company acquired a business jet maker called Grob to advance its aircraft development efforts. Helsing has also opened two factories in the U.K. and Germany to manufacture the systems that it designs. It’s currently in the process of building a third factory that is expected to significantly expand its production capacity. 

The company stated today that its funding round will finance the development of new “AI platforms.” The investment should make it easier for Helsing to compete with Anduril Industrial Inc., a rival defense startup with a portfolio of AI-powered systems. The latter company raised $55 billion in funding at a $61 billion valuation last year. 

Photo: Helsing