Drone manufacturer Tekever becomes Portugal’s latest unicorn

Tekever, which is supplying drones to support Ukraine in defending itself against Russia’s war, has become Portugal’s seventh unicorn after being valued at £1Bn (€1.2Bn) following a new round of financing from its current investors to speed up its expansion.

“Tekever, Europe’s leading provider of autonomous AI systems, announced today the launch of a new round of funding. Fully subscribed by current investors, including round leader Ventura Capital, Baillie Gifford, the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF), Iberis Capital and Crescent Cove, the round confirms Tekever’s valuation above £1 billion. This milestone cements Tekever as a leader in Deftech and fuels its continued expansion in Europe as the company pursues global leadership in AI-driven defense and security,” a statement said.

With this new round, whose value has not been made public, the startup has been skyrocketed to the financial worth of the other Portuguese startups Outsytems, Feedzai, Remote, Anchorage Digital, Sword Health and Talkdesk.

“This milestone is the result of exceptional talent, integrity, and the team spirit of everyone at Tekever that now employs around 1,000 people. In all places and departments we have been working with a sense of mission and purpose that has enabled us to achieve a success that few manage. Our strong culture, based on principles like empathy, problem solving, and speed and agility have brought us here and propelled us to the future”, says Ricardo Mendes, founder and CEO in a post on LinkedIn.

“Europe faces a huge security challenge. Given the geopolitical moment, the European security architecture is being redesigned, and Europe needs companies with roots in AI and autonomy, that work at scale and that can innovate at an accelerated pace… and it needs them now,” said the founder.

“We have been preparing for some time and we believe that we can play a significant role right now in this profound change”, he says.

The announcement of the new round and upgrade to the status of unicorn followed an announcement that Tekever was preparing to invest around £400 million (€470 million) over five years in the UK where the startup has a production factory leading to the creation of 1,000 jobs.

The company has also signed a contract with the Royal Airforce (RAF) to supply drones.

With operations in six European countries — it has engineering centres in the United Kingdom, Portugal and France, production facilities in several markets and operational support teams across Europe —, in addition to the RAF, in November the Deftech signed a contract of about €5 million with the Spanish Government for the delivery, between 2024 and 2025, of drones to patrol land and sea borders.

The company also supplies drones to Ukrainian forces to support their terrestrial and maritime operations through a fund led by the UK.

The last round before this current one was in November, a time when it raised €70 million from various funds, including the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF), a VC fund financed by the 24 NATO allies.