Resilience Conference 2025: Big Takeaways from Helsing, General Catalyst, Auterion, Cambridge Aerospace
Issue 42: The biggest takeaways from the Resilience Conference 2025 stage featuring Helsing’s Torsten Reil, General Catalyst’s Jeannette zu Fürstenberg, Cambridge Aerospace, Kusti Salm, and more
I’m writing this on the back of an excellent, and at times sombre, first London Defence Tech Week. Resilience Conference 2025 spanned an electric two days; packed with weighty content, excellent networking, and stunning weather. We are already working on how to make next year’s conference even more meaningful and will be announcing our 2026 dates in the coming weeks.
On behalf of the Resilience Media team, thank you to all Resilience Conference attendees, speakers, sponsors, partners, and the Launch startup cohort. We couldn’t have done it without you. In the meantime, here are some takeaways from the stage I found most exciting.
Stratis Intelligence formally launched at Resilience Conference
The new European big data startup backed by the Estonian defence-tech fund Darkstar, among others, has “built an intelligence platform for spatial, temporal datasets … allowing partners to query across petabyte-scale datasets in milliseconds,” said Ingvar Helgason – who previously founded biotech company VitroLabs.
Dealroom and Resilience Media co-publish the 2025 State of Defence Tech Report
Monday morning started off with the announcement that we have co-published an exclusive report with Dealroom, revealing new funding data that European defence startups have surpassed $1.5 billion in 2025 alone, projected to hit $2 billion by year’s end – roughly doubling from 2024. These new numbers crown defence as the fastest-growing category in European venture capital. Find the full report here.
Helsing’s Torsten Reil and General Catalyst’s Jeannette zu Fürstenberg take the Resilience Conference stage
On day one of Resilience Conference, Helsing’s Torsten Reil and General Catalyst’s Jeannette zu Fürstenberg joined Bloomberg’s Tom Mackenzie on stage for a wide-ranging discussion. They explored the importance of values alignment in the founder investor relationship, Helsing’s evolving “ethics muscle,” poaching top talent from U.S. tech firms like Meta, Tesla and Palantir Technologies, and, ultimately, the company’s core success metric: the safety of democracy itself.
Expeditions announces €100 million for its second fund, on course for a €150 million final close by year’s end
The founder of Expeditions, an early-stage venture firm focused on European security and deep tech, Mikołaj Firlej sat for his first in-person interview following the news that it has secured over €100 million for its second fund, surpassing its initial target. The firm is on course for a €150 million final close by year’s end – positioning itself as a defence-focused growth fund, a meaningful development as more defence companies require increasing capital to scale. Expeditions backs founders working in defence, intelligence, autonomy, AI, quantum, privacy, communications, and space.
Now backed with $195 million, Auterion unveils its long-range strike drone, pushes into Ukraine and Taiwan
Auterion, the European drone software start-up, raised €130 million (US$152 million) in one of the largest defence tech rounds in Europe this year, underscoring investor appetite for companies reshaping modern warfare. “We see ourselves as a war tech company,” CEO Lorenz Meier said at the Resilience Conference. “What we in the West have to make sure is that we are achieving supremacy in autonomy first. And that means on the battlefield in Ukraine today, in Taiwan tomorrow, and in the commercial industry, the day after tomorrow.”
Isembard launches MasonOS, their enterprise resource planning platform to run factories in more integrated ways
On the Resilience Conference stage, a startup called Isembard launched MasonOS to automate the precision manufacturing that is critical to building components for the next generation of hardware, used in weapons, drones, planes, satellites and more.
Russia is copying, adapting, and scaling Ukrainian battlefield innovations
Speaking at the Resilience Conference, two Ukrainian frontline officers say Moscow is adapting Kyiv’s best ideas. Both officers stressed that while Russia was slow at first, it is now accelerating, aided by Chinese support and a willingness to burn through resources. “They are scaling. They are scaling your ideas,” Vorobiov repeated. “When they run in full power, I’m not sure we will be able to overtake. That’s why we need to overtake them now.”
Never Lift revealed to be an early investor in Cambridge Aerospace
Cambridge Aerospace exclusively disclosed on our stage that it has raised $136 million across three funding rounds and confirmed for the first time that Never Lift, the US-based investment firm, has been backing the company since its inception.
Commcrete emerged from stealth armed with $29 million in funding
The startup is building a much more agile way to set up and run satellite communications on the move. Sources tell us that the Series A values Commcrete at over $100 million.
Kusti Salm, CEO of missile company Frankenburg Technologies, spoke about how the pool of capital getting deployed into resilience startups is leading to faster dealmaking
“Conventionally the way the defence market works is that the customer comes in with their requirement,” he said. “And the requirement is not a drawing on a whiteboard. It’s 800 pages of spec.” Now, it’s founders who define the requirements, he said on stage.
We’re in the process of getting all of the videos online, make sure to follow us on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Bluesky to get notified, and check out the conference photos on our Flickr account.
Elsewhere on Resilience Media:
SCOOP: Verne Capital Unveils €100M Fund Devoted to European Defence
When Data Loss Means Lives: HyperBunker Pitches Offline Vault to Militaries
NATO Warned: Defence Industry Bottleneck is Policy, Not Hardware
Event season rolls on, and the Resilience Media team will be on the ground at Sifted Summit, Tectonic, the UA-UK Defence Tech Forum, and Slush. Drop us a line to set up time to meet. Also, you can get a discount to UA-UK Defence Tech Forum below in our Industry Events section.
And last but not least, we are proud to partner on the Second Annual Working with Defence & Security Survey. More details below and please get involved so startups have better success working with defence and security customers.
I’ll be back in your inbox next week, and thanks again for such an amazing week.
-Leslie Hitchcock, co-founder and Publisher, Resilience Media
Follow Resilience Media on LinkedIn and Bluesky to catch our latest news coverage in your feed. And don’t be shy, bring your voice to the discussion.
The 2025 Working with Defence & Security Survey is now live.
Defence and dual-use startups are playing a critical role in global security, but the sector remains opaque. This annual survey aims to shed light on the challenges and opportunities for startups working with defence and security customers. You can contribute in three ways:
If you’re a founder or exec in the sector, take five minutes to complete the survey
Share the link with three colleagues or contacts you think should take part
Follow Working with Defence & Security on LinkedIn to get a copy of the report
Your input will generate evidence that helps founders, investors, and policymakers shape the future of this sector. Take the survey here.
UK-UA Defence Tech Forum
Resilience Media is once more a Media Partner of the 4th UK-UA Defence Tech Forum, which is taking place on 18th November at RUSI in London with the official support of the Embassy of Ukraine in the UK.
The series of conferences was convened to enhance the collaboration between Ukrainian, British and international defence tech firms, together with the VC community, to scale up production and speed up R&D and new innovations. To date the series has attracted over 750 participants and registration has had to be closed well in advance of each event. Highlights include a pitch session featuring 15 hand-picked leading Ukrainian defence tech companies designed to create partnerships with international counterparts and to meet with leading VCs.
Resilience Media readers receive a 25% discount on the registration fee. When registering on the Forum webpage simply enter the code Resilience25. For any questions contact the organisers at: stephen.butler@strategy-council.com .
A Stalemate of Surprises: Ukraine’s Frontline Insights with Come Back Alive
The Department of War Studies welcomes Come Back Alive, Ukraine’s leading civil society organisation working at the intersection of defence policy and veteran support. Senior Analyst Mykola Bielieskov will speak about Ukraine’s security challenges, the role of analytical expertise and civil society in shaping state defenсe policy, and the continuing impact of Russia’s full-scale war.
This seminar offers a rare opportunity to engage with frontline perspectives on modern warfare, civil-military partnerships, and the security challenges Ukraine faces in the largest war in Europe since 1945. Register here.
https://open.substack.com/pub/thebluearmchair/p/slouching-towards-bethlehem?r=5kmhkr&utm_medium=ios
Thanks for sharing. Sorry, only just become a subscriber. Will lean in!