European defense technology company Helsing has appointed Andriy Shevchenko — former Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine, diplomat, and former People’s Deputy — as Managing Director in Ukraine.
European defense technology company Helsing has appointed Andriy Shevchenko — former Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine, diplomat, and former People’s Deputy — as Managing Director in Ukraine.
Shevchenko, the company said, will be responsible for developing Helsing’s operations in Ukraine. Helsing co-founder and co-CEO Gundbert Scherf said that Shevchenko’s experience in politics, diplomacy, and defense will help the company expand its presence in Ukraine. Shevchenko himself noted that modern warfare demonstrates the crucial role of software, artificial intelligence, and the speed of implementation of new technologies in the military, calling Helsing one of the leaders of this transformation.
Prior to his new appointment, Shevchenko served as Ukraine’s Ambassador to Canada from 2015 to 2021, Ukraine’s representative to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), and in 2023, Deputy Minister of Defense. He was also elected as a People’s Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada three times.
Helsing is a European company developing artificial intelligence software and autonomous systems for defense. It was founded in 2021 in Germany by video game entrepreneur Thorsten Reil, former German Defense Ministry official Gundbert Scherf, and AI researcher Niklas Köhler.
The company has been operating in Ukraine since early 2024 and is expanding its local team. Since early 2026, Helsing has delivered thousands of HX-2 strike drones to the Ukrainian Defense Forces with its own AI system, which, according to the company, allows the drone to operate even in conditions of satellite navigation suppression and independently detect and re-identify targets. The declared range of the HX-2 is up to 100 km.
Helsing also has contracts with the governments of Germany, the UK and Sweden, as well as agreements with Airbus SE and Saab AB — in particular, the company is developing an AI-based radar data analysis system for the Eurofighter as part of a contract to modernize the fighter. The company has offices in Munich, Paris and London, and opened a base in Estonia a year ago.
In June 2026, Helsing raised $1.6 billion specifically for the development of the CA-1 Europa drone, bringing its total raised investment to nearly $4.4 billion. This was preceded by a $1.2 billion round in May 2026 at a valuation of about $18 billion, led by Dragoneer Investment Group and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Even earlier, in June 2025, Helsing closed a €600 million Series D at a valuation of about €12 billion, led by Spotify founder Daniel Ek’s Prima Materia fund.
The company’s latest officially disclosed revenue figure is $10.4 million for 2023; Helsing does not publish more recent official data. According to research platform Sacra, the company’s annual revenue at the beginning of 2026 reached €850 million, with growth of about 48% year-on-year, and the order book has doubled to over €1.2 billion.
