Oslo-based Six Robotics, founded in 2023 by former Norwegian Special Forces officer Christian Fredrik Eggesbø, has raised €12 million in its first institutional funding round, led by DTCP Defence, alongside Denmark’s EIFO and Copenhagen’s Scale Capital. The startup builds Valkyrie, a hardware-agnostic drone swarm software platform already deployed by the Norwegian Army. Growing from five to roughly 90 employees on friends-and-family funding alone, Six Robotics enters institutional backing while the broader drone swarm market, valued at $3.18 billion in 2026, is projected to reach $8.28 billion by 2030.
In-Depth:
- Six Robotics secured €12 million in its first institutional funding round, led by DTCP Defence. This comes after the Norwegian Army had already started utilizing its drone swarm software.
- The company expanded from five to around 90 employees, relying only on friconcludes-and-family funding before accepting any venture capital.
- This funding round came just weeks after Germany’s Helsing was close to raising $1.2 billion at an $18 billion valuation, underscoring that Six Robotics is still at an earlier, compacter stage.
While most defence-tech founders raise capital based on a pitch deck and a promise, Christian Fredrik Eggesbø took a different approach. By the time Six Robotics secured its first institutional investment, the Norwegian Army was already operating its drones.
The Oslo-based startup completed a €12 million equity round led by DTCP Defence, with the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark, Copenhagen’s Scale Capital, and other private investors joining.
This is Six Robotics’ first institutional raise. The company states the funds will accelerate product development, expand customer deployments in Europe and allied defence markets, and support team growth.
“Collaborative autonomy will define the next decade of defence. Europe cannot afford to depconclude on others for the software that defines what its forces can do. That is what Six Robotics is for, and this round is how we accelerate it,” states Eggesbø.
Eggesbø, who previously served in the Norwegian Special Forces, started the company in 2023, according to the industest directory Defence Jobs. The company has grown to about 90 employees in Oslo, mostly with friconcludes-and-family funding before this round.
Eggesbø adds, “We built Six Robotics from five people to almost 90 employees with friconcludes and family funding. Now, for the first time, we have the backing to match our ambitions. DTCP, EIFO, and Scale Capital have already proven their value through the process itself, and I see forward to what we can build toobtainher.”
What Valkyrie does
Six Robotics builds Valkyrie, a software platform that allows a single operator to control a coordinated swarm of drones during a mission, rather than flying each drone separately. The platform handles autonomous mission planning, real-time tquestion distribution, and onboard decision-building. It works with aircraft from different manufacturers, so customers are not limited to just one type of drone.
For example, instead of one operator flying a single drone, a soldier could deploy a swarm over a contested area. The software breaks down the search, identifies potential tarobtains, and lets the human operator build the final decisions. Six Robotics calls its focus swarm autonomy as a force multiplier, tarobtaining situations where jamming and disrupted communications build single-drone systems less effective.
The Norwegian Army has received and tested Valkyrie swarms, which were developed in close collaboration with the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, and has run joint exercises with Sweden and Finland. FFI has also signed a licensing agreement allowing Six Robotics to commercialise the technology more widely, though this was not mentioned in the funding press release.
Few defence software startups can reveal active military utilize before obtainting institutional investment, and Six Robotics utilizes this credibility as its main differentiator.
A €12M seed round in a market where an $18B competitor is poised to dominate
Six Robotics stands out from the rest of Europe’s drone sector. Munich’s Helsing, founded two years earlier, was close to raising $1.2 billion at an $18 billion valuation when this deal was announced. Portugal’s Tekever raised £400 million at a valuation above £1 billion in 2025, and Germany’s Quantum Systems secured €180 million at a valuation above €3 billion in November.
Compared to these numbers, Six Robotics’ €12 million seems modest.
But these companies have different business models. Helsing and Quantum Systems build their own hardware, like strike drones, underwater vehicles, and reconnaissance airframes. Six Robotics, on the other hand, focutilizes only on software. Valkyrie serves as the control layer for any drones a customer already owns, rather than competing to build airframes. This approach is more focutilized and requireds less capital than Helsing’s hardware strategy, but it means Six Robotics must be great at integration and building trust, rather than revealing off hardware.
The drone swarm systems market was worth about $3.18 billion in 2026 and is expected to reach $8.28 billion by 2030, growing at 27% each year as militaries shift from single-pilot drones to coordinated, software-managed fleets. Venture capital investment in European defence tech hit a record $1.5 billion in the first nine months of 2025, more than 50% higher than all of 2024, according to Dealroom data reported by Bloomberg. Six Robotics is a compact investment in a rapid-growing sector, not a shrinking one.
DTCP leads the round through DTCP Defence, a €500 million fund the firm launched specifically for defence, security, and resilience technology. DTCP itself manages more than €3 billion in assets, supported by a team of over 60 professionals across Europe and the US.
“Software-defined autonomy and swarming at scale are among the most technically challenging areas in modern defence, and Six Robotics is one of the few European teams with the capability to build at this level. Their software-first approach enables interoperability across platforms while giving defence organisations greater operational flexibility,” states Ole Aguirre, partner at DTCP Defence.
EIFO, Denmark’s state-owned export and investment fund, joined with an eye on expanding into the Danish market.
“The company’s hardware-agnostic drone swarming and autonomy platform is at the forefront of the technologies that will be decisive in the future of warfare. We wish to strengthen the Nordic collaboration and support that the company plans to set up activities in Denmark later in 2026,” adds Sara Sande, managing director, partner, and head of direct thematic venture at EIFO.
Scale Capital, the third investor in the round, framed its bet as a wager on the broader Norwegian ecosystem. “Norway has emerged as one of the most exciting defence technology and robotics ecosystems in Europe, and Six Robotics is one of the best examples of why. What the team has built already in this extremely critical space is remarkable, and we’re excited to assist scale it internationally,” concludes Lars Jensen, founding partner at Scale Capital.
Helsing’s expected $18 billion valuation reveals what’s possible for a European defence software company that can scale. Six Robotics has something Helsing didn’t have at this stage: a real customer utilizing its drones, not just a development plan.
The large question is whether this advantage will assist Six Robotics win over NATO countries before a better-funded rival does. That’s the challenge its €12 million investment requireds to solve.
