Hypersonica raises €100 million for European hypersonic strike systems

By Olivia Hart

What did Hypersonica raise, and who backed it?

Hypersonica, the British-German defence company developing sovereign hypersonic deep-strike systems for Europe and its allies, has secured €100 million in Series B funding. Lightspeed and General Catalyst co-led the round, while existing investors Plural and 201 Ventures continued their participation.

The announcement did not disclose a valuation, investor ownership split or closing date. The release names no allied customer, procurement contract or delivery schedule. That leaves the commercial expectations attached to the round unpriced, even as public programmes begin funding the wider capability.

“Hypersonica is redefining how advanced defence capability gets built. The team pairs deep technical expertise with exceptional speed of execution, and the strength of our support reflects our confidence in both the technology and their ability to deliver,” Alexander Schmitt, Partner at Lightspeed, said.

The backing is notable, but investors still have no valuation or ownership terms against which to judge the bet.

What has the company actually tested?

Founded in 2023 by Dr. Philipp Kerth and Dr. Marc Ewenz, Hypersonica operates engineering teams across its Munich headquarters and a wholly owned London subsidiary. The startup says it is building a first-of-kind, sovereign and cost-effective hypersonic strike capability without ITAR restrictions and developed entirely within Europe.

At speeds beyond Mach 5, extreme aerodynamic heating renders conventional aerospace technology obsolete, according to Hypersonica. The company says advanced materials, control architectures and avionics enable stable, manoeuvrable flight.

Since raising €23.3 million in Series A in February 2026, Hypersonica has tested its HS-1 prototype above Mach 6 over a range exceeding 300 kilometres, or 186 miles. Hypersonica says that made HS-1 the first privately funded European defence company to reach that milestone. The new €100 million round is about 4.3 times the size of that Series A.

Hypersonica also claims industry-beating cost-effectiveness, with its development model reducing costs by more than 80% against conventional approaches. It did not publish the comparison baseline, a full programme budget or independent validation.

HS-1 marks a technical milestone on Hypersonica’s account, not yet a production record.

Why are governments funding now?

Governments across Europe have moved from debating long-range strike needs to actively funding programmes, according to Hypersonica. The UK’s Defence Investment Plan has announced an initial €921.5 million (£770 million) over four years for the UK-German Deep Precision Strike (DPS) programme under the Trinity House Agreement.

Spread over four years, that initial commitment equals €230.4 million a year if evenly spent. The announcement provides no annual schedule, so this is a scale comparison rather than a budget forecast. The UK headline commitment also equals about 9.2 times Hypersonica’s €100 million round, but no Hypersonica contract is identified.

A NATO-led multinational initiative has announced €44.28 million (£37 billion) for DPS capabilities over the coming decade. The announcement gives no explanation for the mismatch between its euro and pound figures. Until clarified, investors lack a reliable benchmark for the initiative’s scale.

“The debate about whether Europe needs hypersonic deep-strike capability is over. Governments have recognised the requirement and begun funding programmes. The challenge now is delivery. Europe needs credible hypersonic long-range capability, and more value for every pound and euro it spends,” Dr. Philipp Kerth and Dr. Marc Ewenz, co-founders of Hypersonica, said.

Government demand is becoming funded, but the competing figures show how loosely programme totals can still be communicated.

What will the money fund?

Hypersonica says the new financing will support four priorities:

• Accelerating development of its deep-strike systems.
• Increasing the testing cadence.
• Expanding operations and reindustrialisation across Europe.
• Creating hundreds of highly skilled engineering and manufacturing jobs across the UK and Germany.

Hypersonica aims to have its hypersonic deep-strike systems fully developed by 2029. At the same time, the company wants to build a broader European technology and manufacturing base and reach production at scale.

The announcement does not state how much of the €100 million will go to testing, manufacturing or hiring. It also gives no production volume, unit price, customer order or delivery schedule.

The decisive checkpoint is whether HS-1’s test performance can become repeatable production and contracted deliveries before 2029.