Germany raised $3.67 billion across 166 equity rounds through May 2026, up 11.6% year-over-year — and the marquee moves are hard tech: defence AI, a frontier structured-data AI lab, and a sovereign orbital launch attempt.

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Why this matters for deep tech: The month's biggest outcomes are deep tech, not SaaS: the most valuable DACH startup is a defence-AI company, a €1B+ acquisition builds a frontier AI lab, and a German rocket is on the pad. This is the clearest signal yet that the region's top value is moving to hard tech.

In this episode, we cover:

• Helsing raising $1.2B at an $18B valuation (Dragoneer, Lightspeed) — Germany's most valuable startup, defence AI
• SAP acquiring Prior Labs of Freiburg, €1B+ to build a frontier AI lab for structured data
• Isar Aerospace's second orbital launch attempt from Andøya Spaceport (May 18–24 window)
• Bitpanda's Frankfurt IPO approaching its H1 deadline with MiCA compliance due June 30
• $3.67B raised across 166 equity rounds, +11.6% YoY

Related deep-tech episodes: Europe's Defence-Tech Supercycle · Quantum's Software Bottleneck — Haiqu.

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