► Helsing invests £350m in the UK to accelerate deployment of AI-enabled systems under the UK-Germany Defence Agreement

23 October 2024 – Today’s Trinity House Agreement signals an historic shift in UK-Germany defence relations, giving renewed confidence to investors in the UK defence industrial base; Helsing is Europe’s largest new defence company, founded to provide “AI to protect our democracies”, and is committing to further expand its Anglo-German operations in support of the Agreement; The £350m of investment over five years, will provide UK Defence with new private funding to deploy British-made and world-leading, AI-enabled systems at record speed and scale; Helsing’s focus will be on the Agreement’s most urgent ‘lighthouse projects’: supporting Ukraine with AI-enabled systems; modernising our own land forces on NATO’s Eastern Flank through projects like the British Army’s ASGARD; and digitising underwater surveillance to protect Europe’s critical national infrastructure.

Rt Hon John Healey MP, UK Defence Secretary, said:

“This significant new investment into the UK from Helsing is hugely welcome. It shows how our historic UK-Germany defence agreement can help drive our defence industries forward, creating highly-skilled jobs and boosting economic growth. By harnessing our national advantages in technologies like AI, we can better defend Britain and Europe.

“This investment will help put the tech of the future into the hands of our troops today, putting our military one step ahead on the battlefield.”

Dr Gundbert Scherf, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Helsing, said:

“Meeting common threats will only be achieved with a shared sense of urgency and a tech industrial base to match this with delivery at speed and scale. The UK and German governments are now leading the way and Helsing is proud to support them.”

“We founded Helsing with sovereign setups in the UK and Germany, leading with investment to build core AI-enabled technology at pace. Now we’re doubling down with a multi-year commitment to invest at least £350m in the UK to maximize its national strengths, combining the latest advances in AI and software-enabled technology to rapidly deploy, deter aggressors, and protect our democracies.”

Amelia Gould, Managing Director, Helsing UK, said:

“We need to do defence diZerently if we are going to counter proliferating threats within national budgets. The Trinity House Agreement does precisely that, leveraging our combined scale and distinct national advantages, while attracting private investment to accelerate adoption of those software-defined systems already proven on battlefields around the world. It couldn’t be more urgent and Helsing’s investment shows that, working together with government, we’re up to the challenge.”

Purpose

Helsing was founded in 2021 to provide “Artificial Intelligence to protect our democracies, and has since won several contracts across domains in the UK and Germany. The company’s underlying conviction is that modern, robust technologies can transform our ability to re-establish conventional deterrence to avoid future conflicts.

Helsing Investment

Helsing has already invested over £100m in the UK to develop, demonstrate and deploy the advanced technologies underlying its software-defined systems.

This £350m additional investment over five years will fund the scaling of both software and hardware infrastructure for the rapid adoption by UK and German armed forces and capacity to rapidly scale sovereign production in the case of a conflict.

This represents new private investment into UK Defence’s digital industrial base, for the fulfilment of contracts supporting the bilateral programmes and increased industrial resilience, while attracting fresh AI talent into Defence and generating high-skilled jobs in a strategic sector that contributes to both national security and prosperity.

Full details will be announced in the coming months.