Tier-1 VC round

The fourth gate is tier-1 venture consensus: Sequoia, Founders Fund, a16z, Lightspeed, General Catalyst, 8VC. What it proves is consensus itself. This market is winner-take-most: the top 5 companies absorbed roughly 69% of all European and US defence venture capital in 2025 and 2026, and tier-1 entry is the mechanism by which a company becomes the category winner.

The recorded trigger pattern is consistent: tier-1s arrive on the momentum of passed gates, they are not pitched cold. Sequoia entered Stark Defence only after NIF and Project A were already on the cap table; Founders Fund followed. The consensus round prices what the earlier gates proved.

Stark's February 2026 record is the methodology's central claim in a single data point: a valuation crossing EUR 1B recorded in the same news cycle as a potential EUR 536M German government procurement of its strike drones. The valuation is the procurement path, priced. Tier-1 investors did not underwrite a drone; they underwrote a German budget line converging on a company. The June 2026 round that followed, EUR 500M at EUR 3.5B with more than 80% of proceeds committed to R&D and manufacturing, is capacity capital raised after the anchor existed, not before.

Which is the gate's discipline in one line: capital never precedes its proof. The pass condition is a procurement anchor an investment committee can underwrite, held before the pitch, with sovereign or prime validation already on the cap table making it legible.