Drone manufacturer Tekever is the new Portuguese ‘unicorn’

Portugal once again has seven unicorns. Tekever announced on Tuesday that it has just reached a valuation of over £1 billion (over 1.2 billion euros), following a new round of funding subscribed by current investors to accelerate its expansion.

“Tekever, Europe’s leading provider of autonomous AI systems, has today announced the raising of a new round of funding. Fully subscribed by existing investors, including round leader Ventura Capital, Baillie Gifford, the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF), Iberis Capital and Crescent Cove. The round confirms Tekever’s valuation at over £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 defence and security,” reads the statement.

With this new round, the value of which has not been revealed, the startup reaches a valuation of more than 1.2 billion euros, catapulting Tekever to unicorn status. It is the seventh Portuguese startup with this status, after Outsytems, Feedzai, Remote, Anchorage Digital, Sword Health and Talkdesk.

“This milestone is the result of the exceptional talent, integrity, and spirit of the entire Tekever team, which now numbers around a thousand (people). Across all locations and functions, we have worked with a sense of mission and purpose that has allowed us to succeed where few others have. Our strong culture, based on principles such as empathy, problem-solving, speed and agility have brought us here and will continue to drive us forward in the future”, says Ricardo Mendes, founder and CEO, in a LinkedIn post.

“Europe faces a huge security challenge. Given the geopolitical moment, Europe’s security architecture is being redesigned, and Europe needs companies that are rooted in AI and autonomy, that work at scale and that can innovate at a rapid pace… and it needs them now”, said the founder. “We’ve been preparing for a long time and we believe we can play a significant role in this moment of profound change”, he added.

The announcement of the new round, and the leap to a “unicorn” valuation, comes after it became known that Tekever is preparing to invest £400 million (around 470 million euros) over five years in the UK, leading to the creation of 1,000 jobs in the country, a market where Tekever has a production unit. The announcement comes in the wake of a contract between the company and the Royal Airforce (RAF) for the supply of drones.

With operations in six European countries — it has engineering centres in the UK, Portugal and France, production facilities in various markets and operational support teams across Europe — in addition to the RAF, in November last year deftech signed a contract worth around five million euros with the Spanish government for the delivery, between 2024 and 2025, of drones to patrol land and sea borders.

The company led by Ricardo Mendes also supplies drones to Ukraine’s troops to support land and sea operations, through a UK-led fund.

Its last round was in November, when it raised 70 million euros from various funds, including the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF), a venture capital fund in which the 24 allies of the Atlantic Alliance participate.