Helsing confirms investment in Destinus amid reported $6.7 billion valuation
Key Facts
Helsing announced on 20 October 2026 that it had agreed on a commercial partnership with Destinus to offer joint solutions to NATO forces and allied nations, confirming it would participate in the company's latest funding round alongside other investors. The partnership aims to combine the companies' technologies and industrial capabilities to expand production, according to Destinus's announcement. Investing cited Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, as reporting that the investment talks target a valuation of about 6 billion euros, or $6.7 billion. According to the same report, Helsing is seeking a minority stake in Destinus. Bloomberg reported in May that Destinus was seeking a valuation of more than 5 billion euros. Confirmation of the funding participation comes as part of the commercial agreement announced by the companies, while the reported valuation remains attributed to the report on the talks.
Destinus describes its business as manufacturing scalable strike and air defence systems for European and allied forces. The company said its cooperation with Helsing would combine technology and industrial-scale manufacturing to achieve large-scale production. Helsing has an attack drone called the HX-2, which it describes as software-defined and designed for mass production. Its Altra platform allows multiple systems of these drones to operate through software combining reconnaissance and strikes, according to the company's product description. Destinus, meanwhile, says its Ruta Block 2 cruise missile system has a range of more than 700 kilometres and carries a payload of 250 kilograms. Explaining the rationale for expanding manufacturing partnerships, its Chief Executive Mikhail Kokorich said: "The real constraint in Europe today is not demand, but industrial capacity."
The Helsing agreement was preceded by industrial arrangements between Destinus and other defence companies, including a missile joint venture with Rheinmetall under an agreement announced in April 2026. The agreement provides for Rheinmetall to hold a 51% stake in the joint venture. Destinus retains the remaining 49%, according to the ownership split in Rheinmetall's announcement. Rheinmetall said in the announcement that Destinus produces more than 2,000 cruise missile systems annually, the production volume it attributed to the company at the time. Destinus's areas of cooperation with Thales also include joint production of the Hornet interceptor system, according to Destinus's announcement of their partnership. The company identified an industrial site qualified to handle pyrotechnic components for joint production of that system, as part of cooperation on counter-drone solutions, long-range strikes and integrated air defence.
On Destinus's financing, the company announced in a statement dated 18 December 2025 that it had secured a financing facility of 50 million euros from Commerzbank. It said the facility brought the total capital it had raised as of that announcement to about 400 million euros. That total relates to the earlier December announcement, before Helsing confirmed its participation in the latest round alongside other investors. In a separate transaction, Destinus announced on 5 August 2025 that it had signed a binding agreement to acquire Daedalean, a specialist in artificial intelligence for aviation. It put the purchase agreement's value at 180 million Swiss francs, according to the company's statement on the transaction. The agreement provided for payment through a combination of cash and shares, adding the acquisition of an aviation software specialist to Destinus's defence manufacturing business.
Helsing, meanwhile, announced on 13 July 2026 that it had raised $1.8 billion in a funding round valuing the company at $18 billion. It confirmed after that round that its ownership remained majority European, according to its funding statement. That was preceded by a round of 600 million euros announced on 17 June 2025 and led by Prima Materia. The company had previously raised 450 million euros in July 2024, according to its statement on the June round. Helsing's commitment to participate in Destinus's financing thus follows the July round in which it announced its latest valuation and raised funding in dollars. The $18 billion valuation relates to Helsing itself in that round, while the reported valuation of 6 billion euros concerns Destinus in the report on the talks carried by Investing from Bloomberg.
Destinus's upcoming milestones include results from programmes testing interceptor and strike systems, alongside its announced industrial partnerships. According to its announcement of its joint venture with Aeon for low-cost interception, the U.S. Army plans to select up to 3 winners in the relevant category. The company identified 31 December 2026 as the target date for that selection, according to the Army plans it cited in the announcement. In Europe, Destinus said results from phase 2 of the Sentinel Strike Challenge would be announced during the European Defence Agency's annual conference. The company clarified that the challenge is not a procurement competition, so qualification does not constitute the announcement of a purchase contract. According to its announcement, results from that phase are scheduled for release in early 2027, after the announced U.S. selection date.