Few defence startups move as fast as Cambridge Aerospace, and its latest round shows investors are willing to pay up for that pace. The UK company has banked €260M ($300M) in a Series C that pushes its valuation to €2.94B ($3.4B).
US growth investor DFJ Growth, a known SpaceX backer, led the round. Existing supporters Lux Capital, Accel, Lakestar, Never Lift, Ora Global and Elad Gil & Co. joined in. The two-year-old startup says the money will expand manufacturing capacity and speed delivery of existing and new contracts.
Cambridge Aerospace makes low-cost interceptors designed to take down enemy drones and slow missiles. Its flagship product is Skyhammer, which the UK armed forces and Gulf partners agreed to buy in April under a multi-million-pound government contract. A rocket-powered successor, Starhammer, is slated for 2027.
Fresh funding comes months after a $200M Series B, as European governments scramble for cheaper, faster-to-field air defence in the wake of conflicts in Ukraine and Iran. UK defence secretary Wes Streeting called the valuation “a great vote of confidence in Britain.”
The company, which traces its roots to Cambridge’s engineering scene, is now among the most valuable private defence startups in Europe. Its bet is that low-cost interceptors can win the drone wars that expensive missile systems cannot.
