Stark buys Raydiant RF to counter electronic warfare, banking on €3B valuation
What's the deal? Stark, the Berlin-based maker of air drones and other autonomous systems, is acquiring fellow Berlin startup Raydiant RFDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, which builds technology to bypass electronic warfare (EW) in contested environments. Terms were not disclosed.
What's the endgame? Stark plans to fold Raydiant RF's technology into its unmanned systems and Minerva mission management software. The startup, founded in 2024, appears to have been bootstrapped and wholly owned by founder and chief executive officer Dr Luca Steinweg.
The hire: Steinweg joins Stark as head of communications and electronic warfare, bringing Raydiant RF's four-person engineering team with him.
The product: Stark had already been building its own EW tool, R-Zero, which lets unmanned systems run reconnaissance and detect hostile transmitters and radar used to jam signals. Raydiant RF adds tools in antenna design, analogue electronics, and software-defined radios — hardware and software to navigate through jammed areas, not just detect them.
"Raydiant RF brings exactly the technological depth we need to develop these capabilities in-house and integrate them closely with our unmanned systems and AI," said Johannes Schaback, chief technology officer of Stark.
Why now? EW — where adversaries jam radio frequencies to disrupt drones and autonomous systems — has become so common in war zones like Ukraine that many battalions now run their machines on fibre-optic cables. Those cables carry their own limitations and environmental costs, so operators are hunting for cleaner ways to bypass jamming.
By the numbers: Stark, an independent defence startup founded by Florian Seibel, a co-founder of Quantum Systems, is valued at over €3 billion after a €500 million raise in June 2026. Its most lucrative deal is a framework agreement with Germany's Bundeswehr worth up to €2.86 billion if fully exercised, though it still requires Stark to bid for individual orders.
The signal: Expect more M&A in defence tech as larger players chase economies of scale and buyers seek simpler procurement. Prime contractors set the pace, pressuring startups to collaborate or consolidate — and Stark, having made at least two other acquisitions in the past year, is emerging as a consolidator.
Read more: resiliencemedia.co
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
