European defense startups raised $7.4 billion in venture funding through Sept. 20, 2026, against $1.5 billion at the same point in 2025, according to Dealroom and Resilience Media's State of Defence Tech 2026 report, as reported by Defense News on October 5. Dealroom forecasts $10.5 billion for the full year, about four times the $2.6 billion raised in 2025. The full-year figure is a forecast. Mega-rounds made up more than 85% of the money.

Funding by segment

Drones and autonomous systems took 74% of defense startup funding in the EU, 77% in the UK and 57% in the US, Defense News reports. In Europe, unmanned aerial vehicles raised $4.7 billion through September, ahead of Earth observation and satellite imagery ($1.8 billion), anti-drone solutions and launch vehicles ($1.2 billion each), maritime robotics ($796 million) and ground robotics ($77.6 million).

Countries and cities

Germany leads at $3.5 billion, followed by Finland ($1.2 billion), the UK ($932 million) and France ($376 million). Munich is the top city at $3 billion, ahead of Helsinki, London, Berlin, Cambridge and Paris. Dealroom says German startups have set every European defense-tech fundraising record since 2023.

Share of venture capital and NATO totals

Defense makes up 15% of all EU venture capital, up from 6.2% a year earlier, Dealroom says; across NATO countries the share is 4.9% as of September. NATO-wide, Dealroom counts $27.1 billion raised so far in 2026, against more than $14.5 billion in all of 2025, and forecasts $38.5 billion for the full year.

Companies covered by Lens

Lens has covered five of the companies that raised in 2026: Helsing, Quantum Systems, Stark, Cambridge Aerospace and Harmattan AI. The chart lists the valuation reported for each at its latest round. Stark's and Harmattan's valuations are reported differently by different outlets, as the chart's notes show.

Horizontal bar chart of reported valuations at the latest funding round: Helsing 18 billion dollars, Quantum Systems 8 billion, Stark about 3.65 billion, Cambridge Aerospace 3.4 billion and Harmattan AI about 1.4 billion.
Reported valuations at each company's latest round. Company-announced or press-reported; not independently audited.

Sources and notes

Source: Defense News, October 5, 2026, citing Dealroom and Resilience Media's State of Defence Tech 2026 report. Lens did not read the report itself. The report's figures run through Sept. 20 unless noted, and the full-year totals are forecasts. Defense News does not say whether its separate US and EU share-of-funding figures measure investors or startups, so Lens has not used them. The charts were made by Lens from the figures in the sources above.

Image: Frauenkirche Munich March 2013.JPG by Martin Falbisoner, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; cropped. Munich is the top European defense-tech city in Dealroom's count. Illustrative photo; it does not show the events described.