Facts

• Segment: Defense
• Country: Germany
• Website: https://helsing.ai/

Profile sections

• Summary
• Market context
• Products
• Facts
• Funding
• Investors
• Commercial
• Context / Market Position
• Events
• Operations / Deployments
• Team
• Supply chain relationships
• Relationships
• Context tags
• Customers and deployments
• Articles
• Sources

Summary

Helsing develops AI-enabled defence software and autonomous systems for European and allied militaries. Its work spans battlefield decision support, strike drones, underwater surveillance and autonomous combat aircraft, with products such as HX-2 and CA-1 Europa built around software-defined military autonomy.

Market context

Helsing is a central European defence-autonomy company linking AI software with unmanned-system production and resilient component supply. Its industrial partnerships point to a push from autonomy software into scalable drone manufacturing. Defence autonomy company with AI-enabled unmanned aircraft, mission software, and drone production scaling partnerships.

Products

• RX-1

Facts

• Website: https://helsing.ai/
• HQ: Munich, Germany
• Segment: Defense
• Known funding rounds: 2

Funding

• 2025-06-17 - Series D - $699M - Helsing raises EUR 600 million Series D for European defence technology - source: helsing.ai
• 2024-07-11 - Series C - $699M - Helsing raises EUR 450 million Series C for defence AI and NATO eastern flank capabilities - source: helsing.ai

Investors

• Accel - Participant - Unknown - 2 funding events - repeat backer - first seen 2024-07-11 - latest 2025-06-17
• General Catalyst - Lead - Vc - 2 funding events - repeat backer - first seen 2024-07-11 - latest 2025-06-17
• Plural - Participant - Unknown - 2 funding events - repeat backer - first seen 2024-07-11 - latest 2025-06-17
• Saab - Participant - Unknown - 2 funding events - repeat backer - first seen 2024-07-11 - latest 2025-06-17
• BDT & MSD Partners - Participant - Vc - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-06-17
• Lightspeed Ventures - Participant - Vc - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-06-17
• Prima Materia - Lead - Angel / Individual - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-06-17
• Elad Gil - Participant - Angel / Individual - 1 funding event - first seen 2024-07-11
• Greenoaks - Participant - Unknown - 1 funding event - first seen 2024-07-11
• Lightspeed - Participant - Unknown - 1 funding event - first seen 2024-07-11

Commercial

1 commercial event; 1 contract award; latest event 2026-02-12

• 2026-02-12 - Contract award - Germany awards Helsing initial EUR 269M HX-2 strike drone contract - source: resiliencemedia.co

AI-enabled autonomous systems and defence software

Helsing develops AI-enabled defence software, autonomous systems and software-defined hardware. The company works with governments and industry partners to connect existing military hardware into AI-enabled networks while also developing new autonomous systems.

• Target environment: Defence operations, military command environments, air and maritime domains, unmanned systems, sensor networks and allied-government defence programs.
• Deployment model: Defence technology model built around AI software, autonomous systems, software-defined hardware, government contracts and industrial partnerships.
• Customer context: Democratic governments, defence ministries, armed forces, prime contractors and military hardware partners.
• Workflow context: Autonomous systems, battlefield AI, sensor fusion, decision support, drone and underwater systems, precision mass and military software integration.
• Commercial maturity: Helsing is a mature defence AI company, with robotics relevance tied to autonomous systems, software-defined defence platforms and partner-enabled deployment rather than standalone robot manufacturi…
• Market position: European defence AI company positioned between software-defined autonomy and military hardware integration.
• Adoption constraints: Government procurement, export controls, battlefield validation, ethical constraints, production scale, integration with legacy systems and geopolitical dependency.
• Adjacent context: Defence autonomy, military AI, autonomous drones, underwater systems, sensor fusion and software-defined hardware.
• Source confidence: high

Events

• 2026-06-01 - Market Signal - Helsing unveils Area 9 and launches RX-1 European robotics research platform - Helsing unveiled Area 9, an advanced research division led by Chief Scientist Antoine Bordes, and launched RX-1…
• 2026-05-19 - Partnership - Helsing and OHB establish KIRK joint venture for tactical space-based reconnaissance - Helsing and OHB established KIRK, a joint venture for tactical space-based surveillance, reconnaissance a…
• 2026-04-20 - Market Signal - Helsing opens Stockholm hub for Nordic defence and AI air-combat work - Helsing opened a Stockholm presence to serve as the operational centre for its Nordic activities.
• 2026-02-12 - Contract Award - Germany awards Helsing initial EUR 269M HX-2 strike drone contract - Germany awarded Helsing an initial EUR 269 million contract for HX-2 strike drones.
• 2025-12-09 - Partnership - Kongsberg and Helsing team on European space-based IST constellation - Kongsberg and Helsing signed a teaming agreement to accelerate a sovereign European space-based intelligence, surveillanc…
• 2025-12-02 - Partnership - Schaeffler and Helsing sign MoU on drone development and production scale-up - Schaeffler and Helsing signed an MoU to collaborate on drone systems.
• 2025-11-19 - Production Milestone - Helsing opens Plymouth Resilience Factory for AI-enabled submarine hunters - Helsing opened its first UK Resilience Factory in Plymouth to build AI-enabled submarine-hunting systems.
• 2025-10-07 - Acquisition - Helsing acquires Blue Ocean to accelerate autonomous underwater vehicle programme - Helsing acquired Blue Ocean, a specialist in autonomous underwater vehicles.
• 2025-06-17 - Funding - Helsing raises EUR 600 million Series D for European defence technology - Helsing raised a EUR 600 million Series D led by Prima Materia.
• 2025-06-04 - Acquisition - Helsing agrees to acquire Grob Aircraft for aerospace and defence manufacturing - Helsing signed a binding agreement to acquire Grob Aircraft SE.
• 2025-05-13 - Product Launch - Helsing unveils Lura and SG-1 Fathom for autonomous underwater surveillance - Helsing unveiled Lura and SG-1 Fathom for autonomous mass surveillance and defence of underwater environments.
• 2025-04-28 - Partnership - Helsing, Blue Ocean, Ocean Infinity and QinetiQ partner on maritime autonomy - Helsing partnered with Blue Ocean Marine Tech Systems, Ocean Infinity and QinetiQ to accelerate AI and autonomy i…
• 2025-02-13 - Production Milestone - Helsing announces production of 6,000 additional HX-2 strike drones for Ukraine - Helsing announced production of 6,000 additional HX-2 strike drones for delivery to Ukraine.
• 2025-02-10 - Partnership - Helsing and Mistral AI partner on defence Vision-Language-Action models - Helsing and Mistral AI announced a strategic partnership to jointly develop next-generation defence AI systems.
• 2024-12-02 - Product Launch - Helsing unveils HX-2 AI strike drone - Helsing unveiled HX-2 as a software-defined, mass-producible AI strike drone.
• 2024-07-11 - Funding - Helsing raises EUR 450 million Series C for defence AI and NATO eastern flank capabilities - Helsing raised a EUR 450 million Series C led by General Catalyst.
• 2024-06-05 - Partnership - Airbus and Helsing sign AI cooperation agreement for future Wingman system - Airbus Defence and Space and Helsing signed a framework cooperation agreement for AI technologies in a future Wingm…
• 2024-06-03 - Capability - Helsing announces Project Centaur autonomy initiative for air combat - Helsing announced Project Centaur, a large-scale AI initiative for autonomous air combat capabilities.

Operations / Deployments

• 2025-12-02 - Partnership - Schaeffler and Helsing sign MoU on drone development and production scale-up - Schaeffler and Helsing signed an MoU to collaborate on drone systems.
• 2025-11-19 - Production Milestone - Helsing opens Plymouth Resilience Factory for AI-enabled submarine hunters - Helsing opened its first UK Resilience Factory in Plymouth to build AI-enabled submarine-hunting systems.
• 2025-02-13 - Production Milestone - Helsing announces production of 6,000 additional HX-2 strike drones for Ukraine - Helsing announced production of 6,000 additional HX-2 strike drones for delivery to Ukraine.

Team

• Gundbert Scherf - Co-founder - Co-founder tied to Helsing's defence AI, government and autonomous-systems strategy.
• Torsten Reil - Co-founder - Co-founder connected to Helsing's software-native defence technology and autonomous systems direction.

Supply chain relationships

• technology_partner - Helsing has a public integration relationship with Airbus Defence and Space.
• technology_partner - Helsing has a public integration relationship with Mistral AI.

Relationships

• Schaeffler AG - Drone systems and production scale-up MoU - Schaeffler and Helsing signed an MoU covering drone development, production scale-up and autonomous technology cooperation.
• strike-drone supplier - Germany awarded Helsing an initial EUR 269 million HX-2 strike drone contract.

Context tags

• Defence customers - Customer Environment
• Defence AI autonomy software - Peer Group
• Defence AI decision support - Workflow
• Defence AI software layer - Stack Layer

Customers and deployments

• Contract Value Eur - EUR 269 million - 2026-02-12 - Germany - strike drone procurement - Germany awarded Helsing an initial EUR 269 million HX-2 strike drone contract. - source posture: Third Party Reported
• Resilience Factory Count - 1 UK Resilience Factory - 2025-11-19 - Plymouth Resilience Factory - maritime autonomy production - Helsing opened its first UK Resilience Factory in Plymouth to build SG-1 Fathom autonomous u…
• Customer Bound Units - 6,000 additional HX-2 strike drones - 2025-02-13 - Ukraine - strike drone production for customer delivery - Helsing announced production of 6,000 additional HX-2 strike drones for delivery to Ukr…

Articles

• 2026-06-01 - Helsing launches RX-1 as a European robotics research platform - Helsing launched Area 9 and RX-1 on June 1, 2026, with ETH Zurich and INRIA Paris as initial research partners for its European-built quadrup…