| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Defence technology |
| Founded | 2024 |
| Founders | Johannes Schaback, Florian Seibel |
| Headquarters | Berlin, Germany |
Key people | Johannes Schaback (CTO & Co-founder) |
| Products | STARK OWE-V Virtus; Minerva mission control software; various UAVs & USVs |
Number of employees | ≈ 150 (2025) |
STARK is a European defence technology company specialised in unmanned systems across multiple domains. The company sells Loitering Munitions to the German Bundeswehr and NATO states. [1] [2]
STARK was established in 2024 by a group of technologists and entrepreneurs, including Johannes Schaback—formerly Chief Technology Officer of SumUp. The company was formed to address urgent operational demands highlighted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. [3]
In early 2025, STARK launched its flagship products, the OWE-V Virtus loitering munition and the Minerva mission control suite. [4] By mid-2025, the company opened a new production facility in Munich, [5] and later that year the German Ministry of Defence reportedly placed an order for extended testing and trials of the OWE-V Virtus with the Bundeswehr. [4] [6]
In July 2025, the company announced it would open a 40,000 sq ft factory in Swindon, UK. [7]
STARK’s core product is the OWE-V Virtus, an electrically powered VTOL loitering munition capable of cruising at 120 km/h, diving at up to 250 km/h, carrying a 5 kg warhead, and operating for 60 minutes. It can be launched from static or mobile platforms without additional infrastructure, and within six months of its introduction was deployed in Ukraine against a range of ground and strategic targets. [8] [9]
The company’s Minerva software suite enables precision-strike coordination in GNSS-denied or data-link-degraded environments, integrates with existing battle management systems, and orchestrates temporally and spatially synchronized strike swarms. In addition, STARK offers a line of custom UAVs and USVs for reconnaissance, surveillance, and precision engagements, along with proprietary command-and-control interfaces and datalinks. [9] [10]
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