{"id":644740,"date":"2024-11-20T14:29:29","date_gmt":"2024-11-20T11:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/portugals-tekever-raises-74m-for-dual-use-drone-platform-deployed-to-ukraine\/"},"modified":"2024-11-20T14:29:29","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T11:29:29","slug":"portugals-tekever-raises-74m-for-dual-use-drone-platform-deployed-to-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/portugals-tekever-raises-74m-for-dual-use-drone-platform-deployed-to-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"#Portugal’s Tekever raises $74M for dual-use drone platform deployed to Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dual-use drone startup Tekever<\/a> has raised \u20ac70 million ($74 million) to develop its product and expand into new markets, specifically the U.S.. The news<\/a> is part of a trend of smaller tech-driven startups moving into markets normally dominated by large \u2018defense primes\u2019.<\/p>\n

It also shows that unmanned aerial drones are becoming far more sophisticated, in part due to the pace of development generated by the war in Ukraine. Only last month, another European drone startup, Origin<\/a>, raised funding for its precision-strike drone system currently operating in that country.<\/p>\n

Tekever\u2019s funding round was led by Scottish investment company Baillie Gifford & Co. (which has previously backed SpaceX) and the NATO Innovation Fund, the \u20ac1 billion defense and dual-use VC fund announced in 2023. The fund is connected to NATO and focused on backing startups that build tech for categories like defense, security, and resilience.<\/p>\n

Founded in Portugal but also operating in the U.K. and France, Tekever\u2019s surveillance drones have, in a civilian setting, been used to track migrant smugglers in the English Channel. Its largest drone, the ARX, can command a number of smaller drones to surveil the land or seascape\u2026 or the battlefield.<\/p>\n

Unlike most traditional aerospace companies, Tekever controls all aspects of its operations from airframe design and manufacturing to payloads, avionics, software, data, and AI. The company says this means it can quickly adapt its products based on customer needs, as well as the rapidly changing theatre of modern warfare.<\/p>\n

Chief Executive Officer Ricardo Mendes told<\/a> Bloomberg News that Europe needed to step up to the plate more: \u201cWe have the war in Ukraine on our borders and [Europe is ] lagging behind in terms of technological growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tekever bootstrapp<\/a>ed before raising a Series<\/a> A of \u20ac20 million in 2022 from Ventura Capital and Iberis Capital.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not disclosing its valuation with this latest round, which is a Series B.<\/p>\n

NATO Innovation Fund partner Patrick Schneider-Sikorsky told TechCrunch: \u201cThe drone market has grown exponentially in Europe since 2022. At the NATO Innovation Fund, we have a deep interest in technologies that can deliver impact in both the civilian and defence markets and we are proud to back Tekever on account of the company\u2019s extensive applications in defence, as well as ISR for businesses and governments across Europe.\u201d <\/p>\n

In a statement, Chris Evdaimon, Investment Manager, Private Companies at Baillie Gifford, added: \u201cWe were attracted by Tekever\u2019s approach to building drones \u2013 with a software-centric and vertically integrated model.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tekever\u2019s drones have been deployed in Ukraine, with the European Maritime Safety Agency, and the U.K.\u2019s Home Office.<\/p>\n

The U.K.\u2019s National Security Strategic Investment Fund and Crescent Cove Advisors (based in Silicon Valley) also participated in the round, as did existing investors Iberis Semper and Cedrus Capital.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Anna Heim <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dual-use drone startup Tekever has raised \u20ac70 million ($74 million) to develop its product and expand into new markets, specifically the U.S.. The news is part of a trend of smaller tech-driven startups moving into markets normally dominated by large \u2018defense primes\u2019. It also shows that unmanned aerial drones are becoming far more sophisticated, in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":644741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Tekever-drone.png?w=639","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[97802,74839,52711,72287],"class_list":["post-644740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-robotics","tag-fundraising","tag-hardware","tag-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}