🏆 Deal of the Week · CW 26/2026
STARK raised EUR 500 million in a Series C round in June 2026, valuing the company at roughly EUR 3.5 billion — about three times its previous mark. The round was co-led by Sequoia Capital and Founders Fund. It ranks among the largest defence-technology financing rounds ever raised by a European company.
STARK — key deal facts
| Company | STARK |
| Founded | 2024 |
| Headquarters | Berlin, Germany |
| Amount raised | EUR 500m |
| Valuation | ~EUR 3.5b |
| Round | Series C |
| Investors | The round was co-led by Sequoia Capital and Founders Fund, alongside the NATO Innovation Fund, Döpfner Capital, Project A and other co-investors. |
| Sectors | Defence Tech, Drones, AI, Software |
Who invested in STARK?
The round was co-led by Sequoia Capital and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, with the NATO Innovation Fund, Döpfner Capital, Project A and others co-investing. The investor mix is strategically notable: it pairs top-tier US venture capital with a NATO-backed strategic fund and European technology investors, signalling conviction in Europe’s push to build sovereign, at-scale defence-technology capacity. More than 80 percent of the capital is earmarked for research and manufacturing as STARK scales toward what it describes as thousands of systems per month, bringing total funding since its 2024 founding to roughly EUR 640 million.
What does STARK do?
STARK is a European defence-technology company founded in 2024 and headquartered in Berlin, Germany. The company designs and manufactures autonomous strike systems — combining hardware, software, and AI-driven autonomy in a single platform. Its flagship product is the Virtus loitering munition, a strike drone with a range beyond 130 kilometres and up to 90 minutes of flight time, built for series production at industrial scale. In February 2026, STARK won a roughly EUR 269 million Bundeswehr contract — awarded out of a EUR 540 million medium-range loitering-munition package — to equip the German armoured brigade stationed in Lithuania. The company is led by CEO Michael Horstmann, a Project A co-founder, while founder Florian Seibel (also founder of Quantum Systems) has stepped back to a founding-investor role.
STARK valuation & multiples
STARK operates at the intersection of Defence Technology, Drones, and Artificial Intelligence — building autonomous systems that fuse hardware, software, and AI-driven autonomy for defence and security applications. At its current Series C stage, European market benchmarks for Q1 2026 indicate EV/Sales multiples of 1.6x–2.9x and EV/EBITDA multiples of 10.3x–15.4x for comparable Drones, Defence, and AI companies. Investors seeking deeper context on how these benchmarks are derived can explore the Venionaire DealMatrix sector multiples pages for Drones, Government & Military, and Artificial Intelligence.
Explore the benchmarks: Series C Drones & Defence.
Frequently asked questions
How much did STARK raise in its Series C?
STARK raised EUR 500 million in its Series C round, announced in June 2026.
What is STARK’s valuation?
STARK was valued at roughly EUR 3.5 billion in connection with its Series C round — around three times its previous valuation.
Who invested in STARK?
The Series C was co-led by Sequoia Capital and Founders Fund, alongside the NATO Innovation Fund, Döpfner Capital, Project A and other co-investors.
When was STARK founded and where is it based?
STARK was founded in 2024 and is headquartered in Berlin, Germany.
Source: original announcement — read the full report.