Mega-Rounds: AI Infrastructure and Enterprise
The largest headline of the week belongs to enterprise AI, with a blockbuster raise anchoring the cycle.
- Fireworks AI: $1.5B, lead investor not disclosed, enterprise AI infrastructure
- Prior Labs: over $1B (from acquirer SAP), Berlin-based frontier AI lab acquired just 18 months after founding, continuing under its own brand and leadership
The Prior Labs deal is notable beyond its size. SAP committed more than $1B to fund infrastructure, hiring, and long-term research after acquiring the company, making it one of Europe's fastest exits on record and a signal that large enterprise software vendors are willing to pay a premium to secure frontier AI talent quickly.
Growth-Stage Raises: Defense and Deep Tech
Defense and dual-use technology drew significant capital this week, both in the United States and across Europe.
- Helsing: $1.8B Series E, European defense AI company
- Valar Atomics: in talks to raise a new round at a reported $6B valuation, nuclear energy startup
- Wonder: Series D, meal and delivery platform (amount not separately itemized from the weekly top-ten tally)
Helsing continues to be one of the most heavily backed defense AI companies in Europe, and the size of its Series E underscores how seriously institutional investors are treating AI-enabled defense platforms.
Early-Stage and Seed Rounds
Smaller raises this week spanned aerospace, biotech, wearables, and embedded software.
- Greenjets: $40M (approximately) Series A, London-based aerospace propulsion startup, led by Blossom Capital with participation from the NATO Innovation Fund and the National Security Strategic Investment Fund
- Sightera Biosciences: $3M (approximately) pre-seed, Antwerp-based AI drug discovery platform, led by Entourage, Anacura, and QBIC
- ENGO: $5.8M (approximately) round for AR smart eyewear for athletes, led by Ventech, Odyssee Venture, and Bpifrance Amorçage Industriel
- H2LooP: $2M, Bengaluru-based AI coding tools for embedded systems and firmware
- Aurrevia: $10M anchor commitment from Kothari Family Office (via Aarii Ventures) for its Category III AIF launch
- Naturis Cosmetics: approximately $12M (Rs 100 crore) led by Sharrp Ventures, India-based cosmetics brand
Fund Closes and Institutional Commitments
Beyond individual company raises, several fund-level announcements shaped the week.
- Lakestar Resilience I: closed at $300M (approximately), described as Europe's largest institutional venture fund dedicated exclusively to dual-use and defense technology, raised from private capital and oversubscribed
- Lockheed Martin Ventures: committed at least $100M of its $1B fund to European defense tech companies, opening a new London office to support the strategy
- EQT Life Sciences (EQT HE3 fund): received a $28M (approximately) commitment from the British Business Bank for its multi-stage life sciences and medtech fund
Trends and Editorial Perspective
This week's activity reinforces two overlapping themes that have defined 2026 so far. First, AI infrastructure spending has moved well beyond experimentation: a $1.5B raise for Fireworks AI and a $1B-plus acquisition of Prior Labs by SAP both reflect how urgently large organizations want to lock in AI capabilities before the competitive window narrows. Second, defense technology has become a genuine asset class rather than a niche. The Lakestar and Lockheed Martin Ventures moves, paired with Helsing's Series E and Greenjets' NATO-backed Series A, suggest that European institutional capital is now organized around defense in a structural way, not just opportunistically. For founders outside AI and defense, the bar for early-stage funding is rising, as pre-seed rounds increasingly face scrutiny that was once reserved for seed or Series A pitches.