Munich-based autonomous drone maker Quantum Systems has raised $1.2bn in Series D funding at an $8bn valuation. The round was co-led by Blackstone, Airbus SE, Noteus and Advent, with existing investors Balderton Capital and HV Capital also participating.
The fundraise comes amid talk of a potential merger with German strike drones startup Stark, which Quantum’s cofounder and co-CEO Florian Seibel started as a separate company in 2024.
Quantum Systems makes autonomous, unmanned aerial and land drones. It also recently announced a new larger aircraft and is expanding into the maritime domain, with Seibel teasing that something will come later this year.
On a press conference call on Thursday the company’s CFO Jonas Jarosch said the fundraise was intentionally focused on international investors from geographies like Asia and the US to double down on the company’s “strategy of becoming the international neoprime based in Europe”. “Our cap table is quite diverse,” he said.
The new funds will be used in part to give the scaleup, founded in 2015, more options.
“We have seen a lot of hype and a lot of heat in the defence market recently; we believe the winners of tomorrow already do exist and already have a certain size,” Seibel said. He said Quantum now has the firepower to continue consolidating others in the crowded market.
“The next weeks and months will be about carefully weighing our options, which acquisitions are we going to do, which additional fields are we looking into. It’s optionality that we now have.”
IPO and merger rumours
The fundraise comes amid rumours that the scaleup was eyeing an IPO as soon as early 2027. Bloomberg reported in May that Quantum Systems was lining up advisers to explore a possible listing. Seibel also told Sifted in early 2025 that the company could consider an IPO as early as 2026.
Seibel dismissed the recent rumours as “wrong” and a “misunderstanding”. He said the company’s board and management team tasked Quantum with conducting an IPO readiness review, which apparently found some areas in need of improvement.
“There’s always findings,” Seibel said. “The next weeks and months are about also closing these gaps so that we are actually ready for whenever we decide that’s the right time.
“There’s no decision made,” he added, saying the company might raise another round or continue growing as a profitable scaleup.
However, a merger is not off the table: a Financial Times report on Thursday, quoting Seibel, said that Quantum may be weighing a merger with Stark, which also raised €500m last month.
Stark was originally created separately because Quantum Systems was prevented from building kamikaze drones due to weapons restrictions of some of its investors.
“The two companies are valued north of $10bn. Maybe one day we will add those two together, maybe not,” Seibel said. “If it makes sense, we'll do it.”
The company said it is on track to double its revenues this year, which were around €300m last year; it says it is also profitable with “double-digit EBITDA”.
Beyond defence
The scaleup has been on an M&A spree in the last couple of years, snapping up a number of startups including fellow German autonomous trucking startup Fernride in December.
As of earlier this year, Quantum Systems says it has continued working with the governments of Germany, Ukraine, Australia, New Zealand, the US, Romania and Spain.
But Seibel said that the “future is not only about defence.”
“There's a lot of additional areas where Quantum in the years to come can contribute: robotics is a big topic we are probably going to look into, humanoids, more software-related topics,” Seibel said. “I think all these are open playing fields where European answers are necessary and needed.”
