Quantum Systems raises $1.2bn and doubles its valuation to $8bn as defence money floods in

Europe has a new defence-tech heavyweight. Quantum Systems, a German maker of autonomous drones, has raised $1.2bn and more than doubled its valuation to about $8bn. It is one of the largest rounds ever for a European defence startup.

The Bavarian company announced the Series D on Thursday. Blackstone, Noteus, Airbus, and Advent co-led it. Bond, Fidelity, Wellington Management, A.P. Moller Holding, and returning backers Balderton and HV Capital also joined. The raise lifts Quantum Systems to roughly €7bn, up from about €3bn late last year.

Quantum Systems builds unmanned systems for air, land, and sea. Its vertical-takeoff drones fly reconnaissance and battlefield-intelligence missions. A software layer called MOSAIC UXS ties the hardware, sensors, and counter-drone tools into one network. The company says it is profitable, with double-digit margins. Revenue doubled to about €300mn in 2025.

A war-tested record

This is not a lab experiment. Quantum’s drones flew more than 19,000 missions in Ukraine in 2025, the company said. It has built production across Germany, Ukraine, the United States, Australia, Romania, the UK, and the Baltics. Founder and co-chief executive Florian Seibel started the firm in 2015. The former Bundeswehr helicopter pilot wants it to become a “next generation neo prime.”

The new money will fund more of the same. Quantum Systems plans to expand production, harden its supply chain, push into allied markets, and invest in AI. It also wants to buy other companies. Seibel said the firm now has “more than $1.2 billion of dry powder to execute.”

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The defence-tech gold rush

The round lands in a frenzied market. Defence-tech startups have raised a record $17.4bn so far this year, according to Dealroom. That is well above the $11.2bn they took in all of 2025. The biggest cheques have gone to US firms, and Anduril raised $5bn in May. In Europe, the money is flowing to a handful of names.

Rival Munich drone maker Helsing is set to raise $1.2bn at an $18bn valuation, and Stark Defence banked €500mn in June.

Blackstone’s move is telling. The firm manages more than $1.3 trillion, mostly in property, credit, and buyouts, and rarely backs drone startups. Its senior managing director David Kaden said a “structural shift in the European defence market” had created fresh demand for capital. Mainstream finance has moved into a sector it once avoided. The trend runs from big raises like this one down to early seed rounds in air defence.

Merger talk and what comes next

The raise also revives a question about consolidation. Seibel co-founded Stark as a separate company in 2024. Weapons restrictions on some Quantum investors had barred it from building strike drones.

Speaking at a press conference, as reported by Bloomberg, he left the door open to a merger. “If it makes sense, we’ll do it,” he said. A Stark spokesperson said there were no plans to combine. Together the two firms are valued north of $10bn.

Seibel is also looking past defence. He named robotics and humanoids as areas Quantum could enter, arguing that “European answers are necessary.” For now the focus is scale. The company has run an IPO readiness review, but says it is in no rush to list. Europe is now home to at least three drone unicorns chasing the same NATO contracts.

The harder question is whether the continent’s budgets can sustain them all. Quantum’s drone-swarm tests and its new war chest suggest it means to be a survivor, part of a boom that also lifted cruise-missile maker Destinus.