German AI Strike Drones Maker Stark Acquires Berlin Startup Pleno

Founded just two years ago, Pleno builds an AI pilot that turns affordable quadcopters into smart, autonomous drones.

Their system uses vision-based navigation for environments where GPS isn’t available and neural network-based computer vision for target identification. The company has already launched three pilot projects.

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Stark, also based in Berlin, was founded in 2024 by Florian Seibel, cofounder of German drone company Quantum Systems. Seibel was approached by the German government to add weapons to Quantum’s surveillance drones, but couldn’t move forward due to restrictions from some of his investors.

Though Seibel is no longer involved in daily operations at Stark, he remains a founding investor.

Stark has remained mostly under the radar and hasn’t officially announced its funding. However, reports suggest that German-American billionaire Peter Thiel—also an investor in Quantum Systems—has backed the startup. Some sources also say Sequoia Capital is among its investors.

The acquisition follows a trend in the AI defense space, where companies like Helsing are also expanding through acquisitions.

Last month, Helsing, which also develops autonomous strike drones, announced it had acquired Grob Aircraft, a German aircraft manufacturer.

Sifted reached out to Stark for confirmation on the deal size and investor details but received no response by the time of publication.