Hypersonica raises €100M to build Europe’s sovereign deterrence

Hypersonica, a British-German defence company developing sovereign hypersonic deep-strike systems for Europe and its allies, has announced an EUR 100 million Series B financing round co-led by Lightspeed and General Catalyst, with continued participation from existing investors including Plural, 201 Ventures and Germany’s Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation (SPRIND).

Hypersonica’s Series B funding will accelerate development of its deep-strike systems, increase testing cadence and expand operations and reindustrialisation across Europe. The investment is expected to support the creation of hundreds of highly skilled engineering and manufacturing jobs across the UK and Germany, Hypersonica said.

In February, the company successfully tested its prototype HS-1, achieving speeds above Mach 6 over a range exceeding 300 kilometres. Since then, Hypersonica said it has expanded its engineering team, deepened engagement with governments and strengthened partnerships across the European defence industrial base.

“We have shown that next-generation hypersonic systems can be developed in Europe faster and more affordably than conventional wisdom suggests,” Hypersonica co-founders Dr Philipp Kerth (CEO) and Dr Marc Ewenz (CTO) said. “Series B marks our transition from demonstration to delivery. This funding will accelerate development, increase testing cadence, support European reindustrialisation and help ensure Europe has access to sovereign capability developed and produced in Europe.”

Alexander Schmitt, Partner at Lightspeed, said that Hypersonica paired deep technical expertise with exceptional speed of execution. 

“Strategic autonomy begins with the ability to build critical technologies at speed, at scale and at a fraction of the cost of traditional systems. That is exactly what Philipp, Marc, and the Hypersonica team are doing,” Jeannette zu Fürstenberg, President and Managing Director at General Catalyst, said. “They combine the ambition to tackle one of Europe’s most critical capability gaps with the engineering excellence to actually solve it.”