ISR Drone Maker TEKEVER Raises $580M Series D

Big money keeps flowing into European defense tech. Germany’s Helsing raised $1.8 billion in July at an $18 billion valuation, and German rival STARK raised €500 million the same month at a €3.5 billion valuation. Now TEKEVER has joined the pack.

Founded in Lisbon in 2001, TEKEVER started as a software company before pivoting toward drones around 2009. Today it builds the AR3, AR5, and AR6 families of unmanned systems focused on intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), and is widely regarded as Europe’s leading autonomous systems company. Its aircraft have logged more than 50,000 operational flight hours in Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion — a track record that helped it get selected in July to deliver CORVUS, the British Army’s new surveillance program. The 10-year contract, worth up to £400 million, will see AR5-based aircraft built in Swindon to replace the Army’s Watchkeeper fleet.

TEKEVER has been busy around this round. On September 1 it acquired Flowcopter, an Edinburgh hydraulic-propulsion company, to power its AR6 heavy-lift drone, which is designed to carry over 200kg for up to 500km. On September 22 it signed a long-term strategic partnership MOU with Estonian drone maker Threod Systems. Internationally, it opened its first US office in Fayetteville, North Carolina in May, and in June set up a manufacturing base in Japan to target exports across Asia. The company now employs more than 1,500 people.

Founder and CEO Ricardo Mendes studied computer engineering at Lisbon’s Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), then worked as a teaching assistant, a researcher at INESC, and a developer at software firm SISCOG before co-founding TEKEVER with former classmates in 2001.

TEKEVER has closed the first tranche of a $580 million Series D, valuing the company at $6.4 billion — nearly 5x its valuation from just 16 months ago, when a round fully subscribed by existing investors confirmed its unicorn status at $1.32 billion last May. This round is co-led by UC Investments, the University of California’s investment office, and Baillie Gifford — marking UC Investments’ first direct investment in Europe. Merlyn Advisors, whose portfolio manager is former UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, joined as a new strategic investor, alongside continued backing from Crescent Cove, Ventura Capital, and Iberis Capital. This first close covers most of the raise, with additional closings expected over the coming months to bring in new strategic investors.

CEO Mendes told Bloomberg Television he expects the defense tech market to consolidate heavily over the next few years, and that this round is designed to fund growth through acquisitions — a strategy already in motion, with one acquisition and one partnership MOU signed this month alone.

The Competition

TEKEVER is most often compared with Helsing and STARK in Europe’s autonomous systems market. Munich-based Helsing favors a “software-first defense” approach, embedding AI into existing military hardware rather than building its own, and raised $1.8 billion in July at the highest valuation among European defense-tech firms ($18 billion). STARK, a German strike-drone maker backed by Sequoia and Founders Fund, raised €500 million at a €3.5 billion valuation.