Helsing’s three founders own about 36.4% of the company between them, and Daniel Ek’s Prima Materia is the largest outside shareholder with about 14%, according to MRKT 3.0’s analysis of Helsing SE’s filings at the Frankfurt commercial register. General Catalyst holds about 11% and Saab about 5%.
Helsing does not publish its shareholder list. We rebuilt it from the minutes of its general meetings in July 2025 and July 2026, which name every investor that received new shares.
Who Owns Helsing?
These are the largest holders after the July 2026 funding rounds, as a rounded share of Helsing’s 285,324 shares.
| Shareholder | Share of Helsing |
|---|---|
| Prima Materia (Daniel Ek) | 13.9% |
| Torsten Reil, co-founder | 12.3% |
| Gundbert Scherf, co-founder | 12.1% |
| Niklas Köhler, co-founder | 12.0% |
| General Catalyst | 10.9% |
| Saab | 4.7% |
| Lightspeed | 4.5% |
| Elad Gil (two funds) | 3.3% |
| Lansdowne Partners | 2.9% |
| Accel | 2.7% |
| Helsing’s own shares | 2.7% |
| Shares held through a Pictet nominee | 2.5% |
| Dragoneer | 2.4% |
| PM Growth 1 Ltd. (Cyprus) | 2.3% |
| Trident Trust (UK), trustee, growth shares | 1.9% |
| Everyone else, more than 30 holders | 8.9% |
How we got the figures: in July 2025 investors swapped their Helsing GmbH stakes into Helsing SE. They received 57,128 new shares, one for every three SE shares they already held. The minutes list each investor’s new shares, which made up a quarter of its stake, so four times that number gives the whole stake. This matches published figures for Prima Materia, General Catalyst and Saab.
However, when investors sell shares to each other, the sale is not filed. As a result, anyone who sold privately since July 2025 owns less than shown. Download the full table as a CSV file.
How Much of Helsing Do the Founders Own?
Roughly 36.4% together, down from 44.2% a year earlier. Torsten Reil, Gundbert Scherf and Niklas Köhler each hold about 12%, mainly through their own holding companies: Rare Pine Holdings (Reil), Praetorian Investments & Advisory (Scherf) and Raftel, formerly Niklas Köhler UG (Köhler).
Their stakes shrank because Helsing issued about 49,000 new shares in 2026. The articles let the founders’ companies jointly appoint two of the six board members. They waived that right for the July 2025 election. Helsing’s July 2026 release still lists the founders on the board.
How Much of Helsing Does Daniel Ek Own?
Ek owns around 14% of Helsing through two Swedish companies, PrimaMateria AB and PrimaMateria Invest 1 AB. In July 2025 they held 16.8%, in line with the 16% that German site Deutsche Startups reported before the 2025 round.
A further 2.3% went in July 2026 to PM Growth 1 Ltd., a Cyprus company set up in 2025. Prima Materia led the Series D, yet its two Swedish companies took no Series D shares, while PM Growth 1 took a third of them. However, its owner is not public.
In 2021 Swedish site Realtid, citing Svenska Dagbladet, reported that money for Prima Materia came from a company owned by Ek’s Cypriot holding company. If PM Growth 1 is his, Prima Materia’s stake is about 16%.
Ek sits on Helsing’s board. The company’s July 2026 release names him and former Airbus chief Tom Enders as co-chairmen.
Who Bought Into Helsing in 2026?
Mostly US funds. The July 2026 rounds created 19,935 Series D shares and 23,909 Series E shares, and Lightspeed took the most of them. Dragoneer was the largest single buyer in the $1.8 billion Series E.
The filings also show buyers that Helsing’s announcement did not name. Rosa Investments, a Singapore company registered at the head-office address of state investor Temasek, took 0.7%. General Catalyst also bought for Bear Coast, a fund it manages that California’s public pension fund CalPERS lists among its investments.
Some of the round’s best-known names barely appear in the new-share lists. linked to JPMorganChase’s security programme and Goldman Sachs’ growth investors took 11 and 3 new shares, out of 43,844 issued in July 2026. We found none linked to CPP Investments. Helsing’s July 13 release names all three as participants. A holding bought from an existing shareholder is not filed, so these stakes may sit in the register under the seller’s name. What the filings do show is that their primary allocations were small, or in CPP’s case not visible at all.
Is Helsing European-Owned?
Mostly. Holders we could place in Europe, including the founders, Prima Materia, Saab and European funds, own about 60% of all shares, or 63% if PM Growth 1 is counted. Holders we could place in the US own about 27%, and a Singapore company 0.7%. The remaining 9%, including Helsing’s own shares and nominee holdings, could not be placed.
Helsing calls itself “predominantly European-owned.” In May, before this round closed, a person familiar with the fundraising put the European share at almost 80%. The July issues added about 15% of the company. On the register, holders we can place in Europe own about 60%, or 63% if the Cyprus company is counted as European. Even if every holder we could not place were European, the figure would be about 72%. That is still a majority. It is not the almost 80% reported in May, and the filings do not support a reading above 72%.
What Else Do the Filings Show?
- A loan before the Series D. Shareholders approved a convertible loan in July 2025, and the Series D shares were only issued in July 2026. That suggests the money announced in June 2025 arrived as a loan that later turned into shares.
- A large option pool. In April 2026 shareholders approved options over up to 47,228 new shares, about 16.6% of today’s total. They can be used only after four years.
- Shares that pay out above €30 billion. In April 2026 shareholders approved 5,313 “growth shares” that receive nothing until payouts pass €30 billion. Köhler’s company subscribed for them; by late July a UK trustee, Trident Trust, held 5,306. The filings do not say who benefits.
- Shares set aside for Grob. Helsing’s own 7,632 shares (2.7%) were earmarked in July 2025 to help pay for Grob Aircraft, through a Luxembourg investment partnership.
- Business angels. Funds run by investor Elad Gil hold 3.3%. Smaller stakes sit with Stanley Druckenmiller’s family office, Zalando co-founder Robert Gentz and former Zalando co-CEO Rubin Ritter.
- No sign of NATO or EU funds. Neither the NATO Innovation Fund nor the Scaleup Europe Fund appears in the filings. A stake bought from an existing holder would not appear.
Author: Akos Szima
See Also:
Is Helsing AI Europe’s Hidden Edge in Sovereign AI?
Who Is Jeannette zu Fürstenberg?
Which VCs Are Actually Backing European AI in 2026?
How We Checked This:
We read Helsing SE’s filings at the Frankfurt commercial register (HRB 135822): the minutes of its general meetings of 11 July 2025, 30 April 2026 and 29 July 2026, the lists of subscribers for new shares and its articles of association. Percentages are of issued shares and exclude options. Private individuals with small stakes are not named.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Daniel Ek’s Prima Materia, with about 14% through two Swedish companies. The three founders together hold about 36.4%. A further 2.3% is held by PM Growth 1, a Cyprus company. Its owner is not public.
No. Daniel Ek invests through Prima Materia, his own investment firm. Spotify does not appear among Helsing’s shareholders.
Not on a stock exchange. Helsing is private and has announced no plan to list.
Based on public filings at the Frankfurt commercial register. Share sales between investors after July 2025 are not filed. This article is for information only and is not investment advice. MRKT 3.0 has no commercial relationship with any company named above.
