German strike drone make Stark Defence said Tuesday it had raised 500 million euros ($570 million) in a fundraising round, as investment pours into the country’s defence start-ups.
Founded in 2024 and backed by US tech billionaire Peter Thiel, Stark is among a crop of young AI-focused arms makers benefiting from Europe’s ramp-up in defence spending.
The financing came from backers including Thiel’s Founders Fund, US venture capital firm Sequoia Capital and the NATO Innovation Fund, an investment vehicle supported by members of the military alliance.
“The challenge facing Europe is no longer whether we can innovate, it’s whether we can scale,” Stark Defence CEO Uwe Horstmann said.
“This financing is a 500 million euro commitment to Europe’s defence industrial base — funding the engineers, factories and technologies that Europe needs now.”
More than 80 percent of the capital raised will go into research and development and manufacturing, Stark said.
The Berlin-headquartered company’s products range from artificial intelligence-powered attack drones, to unmanned surface vessels and software that coordinates weapons systems and tracks enemy threats.
In February Stark and another German defence start-up, Helsing, were awarded contracts worth hundreds of millions of euros to supply drones for the German military.
Some German MPs however voiced concerns about the deal due to Stark’s links to Thiel, an outspoken right-wing libertarian and confidante of US President Donald Trump.
Germany, like other European countries, has rapidly increased defence spending in recent years to contend with perceived hostility from Russia and deal with concerns about US security commitments to Europe under Trump.
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