Johannes Schaback | CTO & Co-founder STARK

Career History

Johannes Schaback is co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of STARK, a Berlin-based defence technology company founded in 2024. He previously spent more than three years as Chief Technology Officer of SumUp, where he led the technology organisation behind the company’s payments and financial services platform during a period of significant international growth.

Before joining SumUp, Schaback was a member of the management board at home24, the European online furniture retailer. He was responsible for the entire technical e-commerce, data and infrastructure operations and development. He previously co-founded Visual Meta, which operated a number of shopping portals across Europe such as LadenZeile.de and ShopAlike, and served as its CTO for more than nine years. The company was acquired by Axel Springer in 2011.

Alongside his operating roles, he has also been an active angel investor through Whiletrue, with investments in more than 40 companies.

About STARK

STARK is a Berlin-based defence technology company developing autonomous systems and AI-enabled software for military applications. Its products include Virtus, an autonomous strike drone designed to identify and engage targets, and Minerva, its command-and-control software for coordinating unmanned systems across land, air and maritime environments.

Founded in 2024 by Florian Seibel, Uwe Horstmann and Johannes Schaback, STARK has grown rapidly amid increased European investment in autonomous defence systems. Its technology has been deployed in Ukraine, and in 2026 the company secured a contract worth roughly €300m to supply autonomous strike drones to the German armed forces.

STARK has attracted backing from investors including Sequoia Capital, Founders Fund, the NATO Innovation Fund, Project A and Döpfner Capital. In June 2026, it raised €500m in a funding round that valued the company at €3.2bn, a significant increase from its €430m ($500m) valuation following a €56m round in 2025.