A two-year-old Berlin drone startup just became one of Europe's most valuable defense companies without firing a shot in public markets.
Stark Defence, founded in 2024, has closed a €500 million funding round led by Sequoia Capital and Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, according to Bloomberg. The deal puts the company's valuation above €3.5 billion — roughly triple the €1 billion figure it reportedly hit earlier this year. That is a steep climb for any startup, let alone one measured in months rather than years.
The speed of the valuation jump matters as much as the number. European governments have spent the past two years scrambling to rebuild defense industrial capacity, and venture capital has followed the flag. Sequoia and Founders Fund bringing this kind of capital to a Berlin strike-drone company signals that American deep-tech investors see European defense as a durable bet, not a wartime blip.
Stark is still early enough that the real test — producing and delivering hardware at scale — lies ahead. A nine-figure valuation built on a two-year runway is a statement of investor conviction, not a track record.