Hades, a Munich start-up that is developing laser-based drilling for mining and geothermal energy, has raised €15m (about $17.8m) in a seed round. The financing was reported on 11 February 2026 by Sifted, Handelsblatt and deutsche-startups.de, and the company lists the coverage on its press page.
HV Capital and Headline co-led the round, according to Munich Startup. Existing investors Project A and Visionaries Tomorrow invested again, and Founders Factory, Viessmann Generations Group, Interface Capital and Founder Lake also took part. The company did not disclose a valuation.
The seed round came less than six months after Hades closed a €5.5m pre-seed round, Munich Startup reported.
What Hades does
Hades, which trades as Hades Mining and is registered as Hades Resources GmbH, describes itself as a deep-tech extraction company. Its central product is a proprietary laser drilling system that is meant to make drilling cheaper, faster and less damaging to the environment than conventional mechanical methods.
The company says it is building Europe's first technology-driven mining and energy platform. Its goal is to make deeper geothermal sources and mineral deposits economically accessible, with a focus on hard rock and on the complex geology found in Europe. Deutsche-startups.de described the business as laser drills for deep drilling in hard rock.
Hades was founded in 2025 by Max Werner and Björn Dressler, according to deutsche-startups.de. Munich Startup also names Dan Gengenbach, previously an applied physicist at Marvel Fusion, as a founder alongside chief executive Werner and Dressler, who was previously chief operating officer at Isar Aerospace.
Why investors are backing it
The round reflects concern in Europe about access to critical raw materials. In an interview with Munich Startup, Werner argued that Europe imports nearly all of its critical raw materials from unstable regions and depends heavily on fossil energy, and that conventional drilling reaches its limits in Europe's geology.
The headlines of the coverage listed by Hades made the same point. Handelsblatt framed the deal as a German start-up trying to cut Europe's reliance on China for raw materials, while Business Insider's headline on the round carried the line "Europe is incredibly vulnerable".
Werner has said that what Europe needs is a step change in capability rather than gradual improvement, a line HV Capital quoted when it announced its investment, according to Munich Startup.
What the money is for
Hades plans to use the seed funding to develop its laser drilling system further, to start large-scale mining and energy projects and to triple the size of its team in Munich, Munich Startup reported. The company did not give a current headcount.
It aims to begin selling extracted critical raw materials in Europe from 2029. In a Munich Startup interview published in September 2025, Werner said the company wanted to test its first drilling system under real conditions within a year.
The funding so far
The pre-seed round of about €5.5m was reported by deutsche-startups.de in August 2025. Investors in that round included Project A Ventures, Visionaries Tomorrow, Founders Factory, Viessmann Generations Group, Interface Capital and FounderLake, along with business angels Florian Seibel, Moritz von der Linden and Roman Hölzl. Deutsche-startups.de reported that Project A held about 21% of the company before the seed round.
Together, the two rounds bring the money Hades has publicly raised to about €20.5m, although the company has not published an official total.
Company website: hades.com