German startup Stark, with operations in Ukraine, secures $62M and reaches $500M valuation within a year

German defence tech startup Stark has raised $62 million in a funding round led by Sequoia Capital and billionaire investor Peter Thiel, pushing the company’s valuation to around $500 million. Founded in 2024, Stark has quickly positioned itself as one of the fastest-growing players in the global defence tech sector, with total funding now surpassing $100 million.

The company was founded by Florian Seibel, the German entrepreneur who also heads Quantum Systems, a drone manufacturer well known for its reconnaissance platforms used in Ukraine. Stark maintains offices in Germany, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine.

On 14 April 2025, Stark came out of stealth, unveiling its first product: the OWE-V Virtus, a strike UAV equipped with vertical take-off capability, an X-shaped wing configuration, a 5kg warhead, and onboard artificial intelligence for targeting and navigation.

At the end of April, Defender Media published an interview with Maksym Cherkis, Stark’s Chief Operating Officer in Ukraine. He revealed that the Ukrainian unit is focused primarily on testing and evaluation of new products. Cherkis also noted that if the OWE-V Virtus proves in high demand with the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Stark is prepared to establish local production facilities in Ukraine.