Hypersonica, the British-German defence startup developing long-range hypersonic missiles, has raised €100 million in a Series B funding round co-led by US venture capital firms Lightspeed Venture Partners and General Catalyst.
Existing investors Plural and 201 Ventures also participated, the company said on Monday.
People familiar with the deal put the post-money valuation at roughly €700 million, according to the Financial Times.
The Munich-headquartered company, which also has a subsidiary in London, will use the capital to scale development and manufacturing of what it describes as sovereign long-range hypersonic deep-strike systems for Europe and its allies. The funding is a sharp step up from Hypersonica’s €23.2 million Series A in February, which was led by Plural with participation from General Catalyst, 201 Ventures, and Germany’s Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation (SPRIND).
Hypersonica is part of the UK-Germany Trinity House Agreement, signed in 2024, under which the two countries agreed to jointly develop a family of long-range conventional weapons, including hypersonic systems with ranges exceeding 2,000 kilometres. The company aims to deliver an operational hypersonic strike capability by 2029, a timeline it reiterated after a successful prototype test flight in February.
During that test, conducted at Andøya Space in Norway, Hypersonica’s HS-1 prototype reached speeds above Mach 6, or more than 7,400 kilometres per hour, and flew more than 300 kilometres.
The flight validated the vehicle’s aerodynamics and structural integrity at hypersonic speeds, but the prototype lacked a guidance system and did not demonstrate the manoeuvrability required of an operational weapon.
Dealroom noted that the first flight used an engine from the German Aerospace Center and Bayern-Chemie, and that DLR has since ended its cooperation with the startup.
Hypersonica plans further test flights in 2027 focused on guidance and manoeuvrability, and it intends to develop its own solid-propellant engine. The company says its modular architecture and rapid iteration approach can cut development costs by more than 80% compared with conventional defence programmes, compressing timelines from years to months.
“The debate about whether Europe needs hypersonic deep-strike capability is over,” said co-founders Dr Philipp Kerth, chief executive, and Dr Marc Ewenz, chief technology officer, in a joint statement. “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.”
The round reflects growing investor appetite for European defence technology as governments raise military spending and seek to reduce reliance on US suppliers.
Venture investment in hypersonics reached $1.2 billion in 2025, up from $220 million a year earlier, according to PitchBook, with another $446 million raised in early 2026.
Lightspeed and General Catalyst have also backed Castelion, a California-based hypersonic missile startup that raised a $1 billion Series C in August at a $13 billion valuation.
For Europe, the strategic gap is stark. NATO expects European hypersonic missiles capable of striking targets about 2,000 kilometres away, a capability that currently resides primarily with the United States, Russia, and China.
France has been working on hypersonic technology since the 1990s and is developing an air-launched nuclear missile, the ASN4G.
The UK in 2024 selected companies to compete for a seven-year, £1 billion framework to develop sovereign advanced hypersonic missile capabilities.
Hypersonica’s project with pan-European missile maker MBDA remains in the conceptual phase, with development targeted to begin in 2027.
The company says the new funding will support the creation of hundreds of engineering and manufacturing jobs across the UK and Germany.
German defence minister Boris Pistorius visited the startup at the end of October to review the project.
The funding and test milestones do not establish that an operational weapon is close. Hypersonic flight imposes extreme thermal and aerodynamic stresses, and guidance and control at those speeds remain significant engineering challenges.
Hypersonica’s 2029 target leaves little margin for the successive test flights, design iterations, and certification steps that typically separate a prototype from a deployable military system.
Still, the round positions Hypersonica as one of the more closely watched private contenders in a European defence market that has historically been dominated by state-funded programmes and established contractors.
The company’s ability to attract US venture capital at a €700 million valuation, before it has demonstrated a guided hypersonic flight, suggests investors are betting on both the urgency of European rearmament and the startup’s claim to a faster, cheaper development model.
Hypersonica currently employs about 58 people, according to PitchBook. The Series B brings its total funding to roughly $133 million, including the February Series A.
