Hypersonica raises €100m from US-led round for European hypersonic systems
Lightspeed and General Catalyst are backing the British-German defence company’s European development and manufacturing plans, rather than a US market entry.
Hypersonica, the British-German defence startup developing hypersonic deep-strike systems, has raised €100 million in Series B funding co-led by US investors Lightspeed and General Catalyst. Existing backers Plural and 201 Ventures also participated in the round, announced on November 2.
The company plans to use the money to accelerate development, increase testing and expand operations across Europe. It expects the financing to support hundreds of engineering and manufacturing jobs in the UK and Germany, with a target of completing development of its deep-strike systems by 2029.
The transatlantic connection is financial, not operational: the announcement sets out European expansion plans, with no US office, factory or market-entry programme disclosed. American venture capital is backing a business whose central proposition is that Europe should develop and control its own advanced strike technology.
US capital, European control
Founded in 2023, Hypersonica is led by chief executive Philipp Kerth and chief technology officer Marc Ewenz. Its headquarters are in Wessling, near Munich, and it has a wholly owned London subsidiary. Engineering teams operate across its German and British locations.
Hypersonica says its technology is developed, owned and controlled in Europe, and describes its systems as free of US International Traffic in Arms Regulations, or ITAR. That positioning is central to its pitch to governments seeking sovereign long-range strike capabilities.
The distinction matters because American investment and dependence on American weapons technology are different issues. Hypersonica is accepting capital from US funds while seeking to offer European customers systems without the US export-control restrictions it says accompany American-controlled technology. The round does not establish a US sales strategy.
“Series B marks our transition from demonstration to delivery,” Kerth and Ewenz said in a joint statement reported by UK Defence Journal. They said the financing would increase testing and support capability developed and produced in Europe.
From prototype flights to production
The financing follows a €23.3 million Series A in February 2026. That month, Hypersonica tested its HS-1 prototype from the Andøya Space site in northern Norway, reaching speeds above Mach 6 over a range exceeding 300 kilometres.
Hypersonic flight involves speeds above Mach 5 and extreme aerodynamic heating. Hypersonica says it uses advanced materials, control architectures and avionics to address those conditions and enable stable, manoeuvrable flight.
The company claims its development model reduces costs by more than 80% compared with conventional approaches. That is a company claim, rather than an independently established cost benchmark. The prototype results also remain distinct from the delivery of a fully developed operational system.
The new funding is intended to close that gap through more frequent testing and a broader European technology and manufacturing base. Since the prototype flight, Hypersonica says it has expanded its engineering team, increased engagement with governments and strengthened partnerships across Europe’s defence industry.
A funded requirement, not yet a finished system
Hypersonica is raising capital as European governments commit money to long-range strike programmes. The UK’s Defence Investment Plan allocates an initial £770 million over four years to the UK-German Deep Precision Strike programme under the Trinity House Agreement. The Next Web reports that Hypersonica is involved in that programme, but the supplied coverage does not specify a contract value for the company.
Its competitive pitch is faster, cheaper development combined with European control of the technology. For its US investors, the opportunity is exposure to Europe’s defence build-up through a European supplier. For Hypersonica, the next test is converting prototype performance and fresh capital into a system that governments can procure and that the company can manufacture at scale.
