Creandum’s mega new fundraise
by Anne Sraders
Good morning John,
Small, autonomous drones have dominated the VC and startup defence tech ecosystem in Europe over the past couple of years.
But a new product is fast gaining traction with investors as Europe rushes to bolster its sovereign defences: missiles, and in particular those that give the continent deep-strike capabilities — the ability to hit targets inside another country.
Yesterday, British-German missile startup Hypersonica announced a €100m Series B round co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and General Catalyst, along with existing investors including Plural and 201 Ventures.
Hypersonica is developing long-range hypersonic missiles to give Europe homegrown deep-strike capabilities, something the continent has heavily relied on allies like the US for.
“The debate about whether Europe needs hypersonic deep-strike capability is over,” Hypersonica co-founders Philipp Kerth and Marc Ewenz said in a statement. “Governments have recognised the requirement and begun funding programmes. The challenge now is delivery.”
It’s an urgent topic for Europe: Russia has grown increasingly aggressive with drone incursions on the continent, while the US cancelled a plan earlier this year to deploy long-range missiles in Germany, leaving the country more vulnerable. (Germany has since planned to buy Tomahawk missiles from the US.)
“This is the new wave,” Giuseppe Lacerenza, a partner focused on defence at Keen Venture Partners, told me back in May. “The urgency around missile capabilities has clearly intensified.”
I’m curious to learn about more startups which are building — and getting funding for — missiles. Send me a note, as I’m planning to continue covering the space.
Elsewhere today:
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🪖 British-German missile startup Hypersonica has raised €100m in Series B funding co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and General Catalyst.
🇸🇪 Swedish VC Creandum has raised $750m for its eighth, and largest, fund amid a rush to back hot AI startups in increasingly large early-stage rounds.
The AI boom is hitting a physical limit, with the chips, cables, and components inside data centres struggling to manage the volume of data and speed of processing needed to run ever-more capable AI systems.
Photonics, which uses light (photons) rather than electrons to carry and process information, and can carry data faster with less energy than conventional electrical methods, is emerging as a solution.
A host of startups are working on photonics, and investors are pouring billions into the sector. European photonics startups have raised €2.1bn in total since 2024, according to Sifted data. Of that, €1.1bn has arrived in 2026, more than in 2024 (€470m) and 2025 (€544m) combined.
To find out who’s building what, Sifted has mapped 74 European photonics startups using light to power the AI era.
Our data team has also recently mapped:
👷 267 construction tech startups to watch.
🎤 What I told a room full of Europe's fastest-growing companies. (Paid for and produced by Zoom)
How reliant is Europe on payment systems it doesn't control?
Every AI-driven purchase runs on infrastructure somewhere, and increasingly that somewhere isn’t the UK or Europe. Sifted and Ryft get into what that dependency actually costs businesses here, live on Zoom, Wednesday 9 December at 2pm GMT.
If you’d like to submit a deal, let us know.
London-based LO:TECH, which builds trading infrastructure designed to operate continuously across different venues and asset classes, raised $12m in Series A funding. MMC led the round and was joined by investors including Faction, 13 Books Capital and Atka.
Paris-based Gallium Defense, which develops drone detection systems for security and defence applications, raised €7.1m in seed funding. Keen Venture Partners and 360 Capital led the round and were joined by Omnes Capital and Polytechnique Ventures.
Munich, Germany-based Marble Cognition, which develops AI coworkers that learn tasks by observing human workflows and processes, raised $3.75m in pre-seed funding, led by Heartcore and Seedcamp.
Tallinn-based Roleo, an AI-powered career agent platform to assist users with job searches and career development, raised €2.9m in funding. Practica Capital led the round and was joined by Inventure.
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