TL;DR
Dutch defence startup Destinus is seeking €200M at a €5B+ valuation ahead of a planned Amsterdam IPO, Bloomberg reports.
Destinus, the Netherlands-headquartered defence startup that manufactures cruise missiles and autonomous drones, is in talks to raise approximately €200 million ahead of a planned initial public offering, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. The company is seeking a valuation north of €5 billion based on forecast annual revenues of roughly €500 million.
Founded in 2021 by Mikhail Kokorich, a Russian-born physicist and serial entrepreneur who renounced his Russian citizenship in 2024 in protest against the war in Ukraine, Destinus has grown from a hypersonic aviation research project into one of Europe’s most significant defence industrial companies. The startup employs 750 engineers and specialists across production facilities in the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, and Ukraine, and manufactures more than 2,000 cruise missile systems annually.
The company’s product portfolio centres on the Ruta, a cruise missile system that has been operationally validated and deployed by Ukrainian armed forces since 2023. In early 2026, Destinus unveiled the Ruta Block2, capable of carrying a 250-kilogram payload with a range of up to 450 kilometres. The lineup also includes the Hornet interceptor drone, currently being tested by the French Army, and longer-range autonomous strike platforms under development.
Destinus has raised nearly €400 million to date, including €140 million in convertible instruments and shareholder loans, and a €50 million financing facility from Commerzbank secured in December 2025, the company’s first commercial bank facility. Last year, it agreed to acquire Swiss autonomous pilot startup Daedalean for $225 million, one of Europe’s largest defence tech acquisitions, to strengthen its AI and autonomous flight capabilities.
The most significant recent development is a joint venture with Rheinmetall, Germany’s largest defence contractor. Rheinmetall Destinus Strike Systems, announced in April, will manufacture, market, and deliver cruise missiles and ballistic rocket artillery, with operations planned for the second half of 2026. Rheinmetall holds 51%, Destinus 49%. The partnership combines Destinus’s platform design and engineering with Rheinmetall’s industrial capacity for qualification and serial production, a model designed to bridge the gap between European defence demand and the continent’s constrained manufacturing base.
The pre-IPO raise, if completed, would position Destinus for a listing on the Amsterdam stock exchange. The global defence-tech sector is attracting capital at an extraordinary rate: US-based Anduril raised $5 billion at a $61 billion valuation last week. In Europe, Munich-based Helsing is raising $1.2 billion at an $18 billion valuation, which would make it one of the continent’s five most valuable private tech companies. Quantum Systems became Germany’s first defence-tech unicorn last year. Defence tech venture capital hit a record $49.1 billion globally in 2025, nearly double the prior year.
Destinus’s €5 billion target valuation at a 10x revenue multiple is aggressive but not out of line with the sector’s current pricing. Helsing’s latest round implies roughly 15x projected revenue. Anduril’s valuation implies a similar premium. The multiples reflect investor conviction that European defence spending, driven by the war in Ukraine, rising tensions with Russia, and the EU’s ReArm Europe plan to mobilise up to €800 billion over four years, will sustain demand for autonomous strike systems at volumes that legacy defence contractors are not equipped to deliver quickly enough.
Kokorich’s background adds both credibility and complexity. Before Destinus, he founded Russia’s first private space company, Dauria, in 2011, then emigrated to the US in 2012 where he founded satellite companies Astro Digital and Momentus. Momentus raised more than $100 million and was valued at $4 billion before a SPAC merger. In 2021, Kokorich relocated to Europe and founded Destinus. His ability to build and capitalise technology companies across geographies is well established. His Russian origin, despite renouncing citizenship, remains a due diligence consideration for defence-focused investors, though it has not prevented partnerships with Rheinmetall, Thales, or the Ukrainian military.
The European defence-tech ecosystem is broadening beyond the handful of unicorns that have dominated headlines. Norwegian counter-drone startup Stendr raised a pre-seed round last week. The EU’s European Defence Industry Programme, adopted in March 2026 with a €1.47 billion budget, dedicates specific funding for counter-drone procurement. The sector is moving from venture-backed prototyping to industrial-scale production, and Destinus, with its Rheinmetall joint venture, its 2,000-unit annual missile output, and its operational track record in Ukraine, is positioning itself as a company that has already made that transition.
Whether the IPO materialises, and at what valuation, will depend on whether public market investors share the conviction that private capital has demonstrated. European defence stocks have surged since 2022, but the IPO pipeline for defence-tech startups remains thin. Destinus would be among the first to test whether the private-market valuations that have made Helsing and Anduril headline fixtures translate into public-market pricing. The €200 million pre-IPO round is designed to answer that question with as much momentum behind it as possible.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
