Daniel Ek, Spotify’s CEO and founder, has led a €600 million spherical of funding in Helsing, a Munich-based AI defence firm that manufactures strike drones, plane and mini-submarines amid modifications in European warfare.
Helsing, which began in 2021, is now valued at €12 billion, based on the Monetary Occasions, inserting it amongst Europe’s 5 most useful non-public tech firms. Its flagship product is AI-based software program that gives real-time “video-game-style visualisation” of battlefields, as reported by Wired. Nevertheless, since its inception, Helsing has expanded its operation to construct and promote strike drones, and is now making ready a fleet of unmanned mini submarines, studies TechCrunch. The corporate has offered 1000’s of strike drones to Ukraine prior to now yr because the Russia-Ukrainian warfare continues.
The €600 million Collection D funding, which was spearheaded by Ek’s funding agency Prima Materia, shall be used to “speed up Helsing’s management in all-domain defence innovation”, says Helsing.
Daniel Ek, who can be Chairman at Helsing, provides: “As Europe quickly strengthens its defence capabilities in response to evolving geopolitical challenges, there may be an pressing want for investments in superior applied sciences that guarantee its strategic autonomy and safety readiness…By doubling down on our funding, Prima Materia reaffirms its dedication to empowering Europe’s technological sovereignty—an ambition Helsing completely embodies.”
The funding spherical additionally noticed funding from Lightspeed Ventures, Accel, Plural, Basic Catalyst and SAAB and BDT & MSD Companions. Total, the corporate has now raised €1.37 billion, based on TechCrunch.
Chatting with the FT, Ek provides: “The world is being examined in additional methods than ever earlier than…There’s an infinite realisation that it’s actually now AI, mass and autonomy that’s driving the brand new battlefield.”
Ek has come underneath scrutiny earlier than for his involvement in Helsing. Artists corresponding to Skee Masks have eliminated their music from Spotify and boycotted the streaming platform following Ek’s €100 million funding in Helsing in 2021. The Spotify CEO expects additional backlash, however stays adamant: “I’m certain individuals will criticise it, and that’s OK,” he says.
“Personally, I’m not involved about it. I focus extra on doing what I feel is correct, and I’m 100 per cent satisfied that that is the best factor for Europe.”
Alongside his work for Spotify, Prima Materia and Helsing, Daniel Ek can be the chairman and co-founder at Neko Well being, a medical know-how firm that makes use of AI to analyse well being information.
Previously two years, Ek has cashed out round $376.3 million price of Spotify shares — a sum that no artist on the streaming platform has reached through its royalties system. In April 2025, Spotify recorded its highest subscriber internet provides since 2020.
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Sam is the Commissioning Editor at MusicTech, the place he’s helped form the publication’s editorial voice since 2019. With almost twenty years of music-making and a level in music know-how behind him, his focus is on the tales behind studio gear and the artists who use it. He’s spent manner an excessive amount of time sampling disco information.
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