Hypersonica, a British-German defense startup developing hypersonic strike systems, announced a €100 million Series B on November 2, 2026, according to The Next Web, Tech Funding News (TFN), Startup Rise and Defense WarRoom. Lightspeed and General Catalyst co-led the round, and existing investors Plural and 201 Ventures took part, those outlets report. Hypersonica says it will use the money to speed up development, run more test flights and expand operations across Europe, and it expects the investment to create hundreds of engineering and manufacturing jobs in the UK and Germany. In February 2026 the company reported a prototype flight that it says passed Mach 6.

The round

Hypersonica has not disclosed a valuation. The Next Web, TFN and Defense WarRoom report a figure of about €700 million. The Next Web attributes it to the Financial Times, citing unnamed sources, and the company has not confirmed it. Defense WarRoom says Europeans retain majority ownership, a company statement.

The company's website names the investors differently from the press. Its Series B headline reads: “Hypersonica announces €100 Million Series B funding round with Lightspeed, Global Founders Capital, and Plural.” The four outlets above name Lightspeed and General Catalyst as co-leads, with Plural and 201 Ventures as existing investors. Lens has not resolved the difference.

Total funding is reported as about €126 million by The Next Web and TFN, and about €123 million by Defense WarRoom. TFN's figure includes a €2.5 million seed round led by General Catalyst and a €23.3 million Series A led by Plural. Germany's Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation (SPRIND), General Catalyst and 201 Ventures also took part in the Series A, according to TFN and Airforce Technology, and TFN lists TUM Venture Labs as an early backer. Defense News gave the Series A as €23 million, while the company's website says €23.3 million.

TFN notes that Lightspeed has invested in Helsing and led the Series A and co-led the Series B of Castelion, a US hypersonic weapons company, and that General Catalyst led Helsing's 2023 and 2024 rounds. The Next Web describes both lead investors as US firms. Lens covered Helsing's latest round separately.

The founders and the company

Hypersonica was founded in December 2023 by Philipp Kerth (CEO) and Marc Ewenz (CTO), both doctoral graduates of the University of Oxford, according to Defense News, Euronews and Airforce Technology. TFN describes Kerth as a German physicist who won a Rhodes scholarship after his bachelor's degree and then began a hypersonics PhD at Oxford, and Ewenz as a German aerospace engineer who met Kerth during their doctorates. TFN also reports that Kerth says meeting Jeannette zu Fürstenberg of General Catalyst turned the idea into a serious strategic project.

The legal entity is Hypersonica GmbH. The company has its headquarters near Munich, in Wessling according to The Next Web, and a wholly owned subsidiary in London, with engineering and business teams spread across both, per the company as quoted by FW-MAG. Euronews reported about 50 staff in February, and the Series B reports give no headcount. Hypersonica describes itself as “the Anglo-German defence and aerospace company building Europe's sovereign hypersonic strike capability,” FW-MAG reports. Defense WarRoom says the company states its technology is designed, owned and controlled in Europe and is free of US ITAR export restrictions, and Startup Rise says it aims to build the technology entirely in Europe without ITAR-restricted components.

The February test flight

All performance details of the test come from Hypersonica. According to Defense News, Euronews and Defense WarRoom, the prototype flew on February 3, 2026 from Andøya Space, a launch site in northern Norway. The company said the vehicle exceeded Mach 6, which TFN converts to over 7,400 km/h, and flew more than 300 km. It said all systems “operated nominally throughout the ascent and descent” and that performance was validated at hypersonic speeds “down to the subcomponent level.” According to its website, the company announced the flight on February 10, the same day as its Series A.

The vehicle is described differently across sources. The company's website calls it a “hypersonic ballistic missile prototype” and labels it HS-1, a “test vehicle.” Defense WarRoom calls it a single-stage prototype and a technology demonstrator, not a weapon, and says it landed in the designated range area. Defense News, Airforce Technology and Euronews do not name the vehicle. None of the reports describes the propulsion, airframe or materials, and Defense WarRoom says the strike system's propulsion, guidance, warhead and airframe configuration are undisclosed.

Hypersonica says the flight produced “invaluable datasets” for the design of future high-speed strike systems and that it is the first privately funded European defense company to achieve hypersonic flight. Euronews notes that the test details come from the company's announcement and cites no independent verification, and Lens found none in the other coverage reviewed. The company has reported one flight.

On preparation, the company says it went from concept to flight readiness in under nine months. Airforce Technology says that period covered procurement, integration, ground testing, export-control compliance, regulatory steps, flight safety and range organization. A company statement quoted by Airforce Technology reads: “our speed from design to the launchpad in just nine months should recalibrate expectations.” Defense WarRoom says the nine-month figure has not been independently verified.

Technology and cost claims

Defense News and Euronews define hypersonic missiles as flying above five times the speed of sound while staying maneuverable in the atmosphere. Defense News calls extreme heat a core technical challenge, and Euronews says the weapons are a significant challenge for air defenses. Startup Rise says Hypersonica addresses heat with advanced materials, control systems and avionics that the company says allow its systems to fly safely and change direction in flight. Defense News says the company uses a modular design for quick upgrades and military-grade components from suppliers.

Hypersonica says the modular approach cuts development cycles from years to months and reduces development costs by more than 80% compared with conventional approaches. TFN notes that the baseline for that comparison is not specified, and Defense WarRoom says the claim is unverified. In an emailed reply to Defense News, the company said: “Europe doesn't have 20 years or billions to spend on developing hypersonic strike.” Defense News adds, for context, a 2023 report from the US Congressional Budget Office estimating that hypersonic missiles could cost about a third more than ballistic missiles of the same range with maneuverable warheads.

Roadmap

The company's stated goal is hypersonic strike capability by 2029, and The Next Web calls 2029 a target for its long-range system. The company's website says its next-generation systems are planned to fly at Mach 5 or faster with greater maneuverability and are “designed to beat existing air and missile defences,” a company claim. FW-MAG reports the planned flight phases as hypersonic flight, achieved in February; advanced flight control at hypersonic speed; complex maneuverability; and demonstration of full mission requirements. It gives a mature system as a 2030 target, which the company aligns with NATO requirements and the UK's 2030 hypersonic framework. Airforce Technology and Defense News also say further flights are planned to demonstrate flight control and complex maneuvers. TFN notes that a maneuvering flight has not yet been shown, and none of the Series B reports gives a date for the next flight.

In their joint Series B statement, the founders said: “Series B marks our transition from demonstration to delivery.” They said the debate about whether Europe needs hypersonic deep-strike capability is over and that governments “have recognised the requirement and begun funding programmes,” and added: “The challenge now is delivery.”

Government programs

Coverage of the round places Hypersonica alongside several UK and European programs. The UK and Germany signed the Trinity House Agreement on October 23, 2024, according to Defense WarRoom. Under it, the two countries are pursuing a Deep Precision Strike capability with a range above 2,000 km, which both defense ministers confirmed in May 2025, Defense WarRoom reports. It describes two weapon types, an advanced cruise missile and a hypersonic glide vehicle, starting with ground-launched variants, with development scheduled to start in 2027. FW-MAG, writing in February, says no other characteristics have been defined and it is unclear whether the weapon would be ballistic, cruise or hypersonic. A UK Ministry of Defence release quoted by FW-MAG says the program “is progressing rapidly,” with a new joint study phase about to begin.

The UK Defence Investment Plan allocates £770 million over four years to the joint program, according to The Next Web and Defense WarRoom. TFN, citing Janes, says the program covers stealth cruise and hypersonic weapons with a range above 2,000 km and delivery projected for the 2030s. Defense WarRoom says Hypersonica and the missile maker MBDA are both involved in the program, while FW-MAG says it is unclear whether the joint study phase will involve Hypersonica directly. None of the Series B reports names a government customer or a contract value.

Defense News lists other programs. The European Defence Fund's 2026 work program includes €168 million for hypersonic countermeasures and high-end endoatmospheric interception, and much European hypersonic work has focused on countering threats, with the Hydis2 and Hydef programs cited. France has worked on hypersonics since the 1990s and is developing the ASN4G, a hypersonic air-launched nuclear missile, and in May 2024 the UK chose companies to compete for a seven-year, £1 billion framework for sovereign advanced hypersonic missile capabilities. Defense WarRoom lists the ELSA initiative's members as France, Germany, Italy, Poland, the UK, the Netherlands and Sweden, and says France has sought to join the Trinity House effort. It also reports that on May 1, 2026 the Pentagon cancelled a planned deployment to Germany of the 3rd Battalion, 12th Field Artillery Regiment, which was to rotate Tomahawk, SM-6 and developmental hypersonic missiles under a July 2024 US-German commitment.

Other companies and the market

TFN reports that Castelion closed a $1 billion Series C at a $13 billion valuation in August, with Lightspeed and General Catalyst among its investors, and has more than $500 million in US military contracts. Defense News, in February, put Castelion's funding at more than $450 million and described it as founded by former SpaceX executives and building “affordable hypersonic weapons.” TFN says Destinus began in hypersonics and appears to be moving into broader precision-strike missiles, and it reported in May that Destinus was seeking €200 million at a valuation above €5 billion. TFN cites a MarketsandMarkets forecast of the hypersonic weapons market at $6.8 billion in 2023 and $14.5 billion by 2030.

For the wider sector, Dealroom and Resilience Media counted $7.4 billion raised by European defense startups through Sept. 20, 2026 and forecast $10.5 billion for the full year, with Munich the top city at $3 billion; Lens reported those figures separately.

European defense spending and Russia's Oreshnik

Euronews placed the test in the context of Russia's Oreshnik, which it describes as an intermediate-range ballistic missile that can carry conventional or nuclear warheads, with a reported range of up to 5,500 km. It says Russia has deployed the missile to Belarus and has used it twice against Ukraine: in November 2024 against Dnipro, and on January 8 against critical infrastructure in the Lviv region. The Ukrainian Air Force said the January missile traveled at about 13,000 km/h, Euronews reports. The article does not compare Oreshnik's capabilities with Hypersonica's prototype.

Euronews also reports Germany's 2026 defense budget at about €108.2 billion, made up of €82.7 billion from the regular budget and €25.5 billion from a special fund, up from about €95 billion in 2025. It cites SIPRI figures showing that US arms imports to Europe more than tripled between 2020 and 2024 compared with the previous five years, and that Europe's share of US arms exports rose from 13% in 2015-2019 to 35% in 2020-2024.

Sources and notes

Sources, published on November 2, 2026: The Next Web, Tech Funding News, Startup Rise and Defense WarRoom. Earlier coverage: Defense News (February 10), Airforce Technology (February 11), Euronews (February 11) and FW-MAG (February 18). Company statements come from the Hypersonica website.

Lens also reviewed a Lightspeed LinkedIn post announcing the investment. It describes the prototype as flying at more than six times the speed of sound nine months after design began, says Lightspeed is co-leading the round, and says Lightspeed partner Alexander Schmitt discusses the investment with Philipp Kerth in an episode of “The Investment Memo.” Lens has not reviewed that episode, and the post's statements are Lightspeed's. The Financial Times valuation report is paywalled and was read only through The Next Web and TFN, which cite it. TFN, Defense WarRoom and FW-MAG include their own authors' analysis, which Lens has not used. Euronews's page carried later-dated headlines unrelated to the article, which Lens excluded.

Other differences between sources: Euronews says the company announced the flight on a Monday, while the website dates both the flight announcement and the Series A to February 10; the TFN web address reads “111m” while its headline and text say €100 million. The company website does not state a founding date or founders' names, so those come from the press.

Image: Andoya rocket center-01.jpg by asbjorneliassen, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; cropped. It shows the Andøya rocket range in northern Norway, where Hypersonica says it flew its February 2026 test. Illustrative photo; it is not from that flight and does not show Hypersonica's prototype.