Stark confirms €500m late-stage round to scale European defence manufacturing
What's the deal? Berlin-based defence startup Stark has confirmed a €500m late-stage round to expand research, development and manufacturing across Europe.
Sequoia Capital and Founders Fund led the backing, joined by the NATO Innovation FundDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Project A, Air Street CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, 201 VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, AdventDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and Döpfner CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →.
The company said more than 80% of the capital will go directly into R&D and manufacturing, including new electronic warfare research facilities and scaling production to thousands of systems per month.
Why now? Founded in 2024, Stark has become one of Europe's fastest-growing defence startups.
It reached unicorn status in an unannounced January 2026 round valuing it at more than $1bn, after raising $62m in August 2025 in a Sequoia-led round.
Stark secured a €268m contract with the German armed forces for its kamikaze drones, expanded into the UK and Sweden, acquired Berlin navigation software startup Pleno and launched maritime drone systems.
What could go wrong? Scaling remains the hurdle. "The challenge facing Europe is no longer whether we can innovate, it's whether we can scale," said chief executive officer Uwe Horstmann.
Stark also faces a crowded field. French rival Harmattan AI recently raised $200m at a $1.4bn valuation, led by Dassault Aviation.
The company has seen leadership change too. Founder Florian Seibel, who also started Quantum Systems, has stepped back from daily operations and now serves as a founding investor, with Project A cofounder Horstmann taking over as CEO in October 2026.
The signal: The round shows top-tier US investors like Sequoia Capital and Founders Fund deepening their bets on European defence, with the NATO Innovation Fund signalling strategic alignment between venture capital and the continent's security needs. For a startup founded only in 2024, reaching mature growth stage at this pace underscores how quickly capital is flowing into the sector.
Read more: Sifted
Image credit: "Drone UAV 4X-UEC" by Mussi Katz is marked with CC0 1.0. To view the terms, visit https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/.
