Our Partnership with Helsing: Building AI-Native Defense for Europe

The European defense market is undergoing a generational transition. Across the continent, governments are making a decisive, structural commitment to their own security, supported by larger budgets, stronger political alignment, and a shared recognition of the stakes. Every NATO member now spends above 2% of GDP on defense, with a unified commitment to move toward 3.5% and beyond over the coming decade. Germany in particular is leading with urgency, driven by a historic shift in security policy that removes longstanding restrictions thereby unlocking the largest military production in generations. This priority was playing out in real time last week as NATO leaders gather in Ankara, where the dialogues are focused on progressing spend, production, and the shared commitment towards building a stronger Europe and NATO. 

The composition of this renewed defense spend is shifting just as meaningfully: away from personnel and legacy platforms and toward autonomous systems, secure AI, electronic warfare, and software-defined capabilities. Also embedded in the rearmament is a change in procurement approach: European governments are actively seeking a new generation of domestic European defense partners they can trust with some of their most sensitive programs and rely on for decades to come.

It is in this consequential moment that we are excited to announce our partnership with Helsing and to celebrate the company's Series E, a reflection of its impact to date and the opportunity ahead across Europe and its allies.

Our ICONIQ community has given us the privilege of close relationships with government and military leaders around the world. As we studied the tailwinds in defense and the emerging landscape of founders building for this moment, we drew on trusted perspectives from Europe and, importantly, in Ukraine, which shaped how we evaluated the space. Helsing consistently stood out to us not only in terms of its strengths in technology and manufacturing, but also in its credibility and thought leadership, earning it trust among sovereigns.

Helsing was founded in 2021 on the conviction that European security has become, in large part, a software problem requiring AI-native solutions built from first principles. What we believe distinguishes the company today is the integration of its portfolio across air, land, sea, and space. At the center is Altra, Helsing's AI operating system, and around it sits a growing set of   remarkable capabilities: HX-2, an autonomous loitering munition deployed and battle-tested in Ukraine and in active production across Europe; Cirra, a deep learning electronic warfare system deployed on the Eurofighter Typhoon EK; Centaur, an AI fighter pilot progressing from software to live airborne operations with Saab; Lura, a large acoustic model for persistent underwater surveillance; SG-1 Fathom, an autonomous underwater vehicle; and the CA-1 Europa, an autonomous combat aerial vehicle built in close partnership with sovereign leaders. Underneath these products sits real research depth in AI and autonomy, focused on defense specific capabilities where Helsing has built proprietary strength, and an iterative flywheel that runs across the whole platform.

Being on the ground in Ukraine has fundamentally shaped Helsing. With thousands of drones in daily battlefield use, the company operates one of the rare live feedback loops in European defense, and it has used that experience deliberately, strengthening its manufacturing, supply chain, and systems with each generation. The HX-2 in production today is the result of that rigor, built for reliability and precision in some of the most contested environments. The lessons from Ukraine came through clearly in our conversations and were echoed just as strongly by trusted leaders in our network.

Our diligence underscored an impressive platform with strength across domains, rooted in software and autonomy and trusted by countries globally. But central to our thesis was a world-class team. Our time together in London and Munich consistently reflected the qualities we look for in generational founders: maturity, directness, accountability, and a combination of technical ambition and humility. Torsten, Gundbert, and Niklas are close-knit, complementary in their skill sets, and deeply mission driven. They also have an eye for talent and have surrounded themselves with high-caliber operators across core dimensions of the business – from AI research to government and military relationships, to manufacturing at scale and building a supply chain focused on European sovereignty. Just as importantly, the team is anchored in its conviction that advanced technology has a role to play in protecting democratic societies and that these capabilities must be developed and deployed with care and judgment.

In under five years, Helsing has gone from a promising software startup to a trusted leader with programs of record across several domains and countries, scaled production out of its Resilience Factories that exemplify sovereign and distributed production, an ambitious roadmap headlined by the CA-1, and early proof that it can be a trusted acquirer for emerging founders and specialists who strengthen the platform further.

Our partnership with Helsing reflects a conviction we hold across ICONIQ: some of the most consequential companies of the next decade will be built at the intersection of software, AI, autonomy, and advanced hardware manufacturing. Helsing is applying that combination to one of the defining challenges of our time with an exceptional level of care and judgment. 

Europe and NATO’s security will depend on an ecosystem of principled companies, sovereign partners, and innovative leaders. We believe Helsing will play an important role in that ecosystem, and we are grateful to partner with Torsten, Gundbert, Niklas, and the entire Helsing team as they help Europe strengthen its sovereignty for the realities of modern defense.

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