Tekever, the Lisbon-founded maker of AI-powered surveillance drones, has closed the first tranche of a $580 million Series D round that values the company at $6.4 billion. It is one of the largest private raises yet for a European defense technology company. The company, whose aircraft have logged more than 50,000 operational flight hours in Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, now plans to go shopping. Founder and chief executive Ricardo Mendes told Bloomberg Television on Wednesday that the money is meant to fund acquisitions in a market he expects to go through "tremendous consolidation" over the next few years.
"The fund raise is precisely designed to support that growth, not only organically, developing new technology, but through acquisitions," Mendes said in the Bloomberg interview.
Who Wrote the Checks
UC Investments, which manages money for the University of California, and Baillie Gifford co-led the round. Tekever said the deal is UC Investments' first direct investment in Europe, a notable step for one of the largest university investment offices in the United States. Baillie Gifford, which first backed Tekever in 2024, put in more money. Merlyn Advisors joined as a new strategic investor. Sir Ben Wallace, the former UK Secretary of State for Defence, is a portfolio manager there. Existing shareholders Crescent Cove, Ventura Capital and Iberis Capital also invested again.
The round is not finished. Tekever said the first close, announced from London on September 23, covers the majority of the $580 million, and it expects further closings "over the coming months" to bring in more strategic investors. The company said the capital will fund international expansion, a bigger industrial and technology base, faster development of its autonomous systems, and strategic acquisitions. Mendes told Bloomberg that Tekever employs more than 1,500 people and is adding product lines and infrastructure in countries including the UK and France. He said Tekever plans to use its existing operations as a platform to bring the technologies and companies it acquires to market.
Investors backed the pitch in unusually strong terms. "Having such a long term investor like UC Investments choose TEKEVER for its first direct investment in Europe is a powerful endorsement of our technology, our team and our long-term vision," Mendes said in the company's announcement. Jagdeep Singh Bachher, the University of California's chief investment officer, said: "Our conviction rests on Ricardo and his team, and on the growing weight of European technology in global markets." Wallace spoke to the geopolitics: "Europe's security will increasingly depend on its ability to build technology companies that can innovate at speed, scale industrially and deliver capabilities that respond to real operational needs."
From Software Shop to Surveillance Specialist
Mendes founded Tekever in 2001 with classmates from Lisbon's Instituto Superior Técnico. The company started out building device-connectivity software and turned to drones around 2009. Today it designs and builds its own unmanned aircraft, including the AR3 and AR5, and sells the data they collect as a subscription intelligence service. The UK Home Office uses its drones to patrol the English Channel.
The raise follows Tekever's biggest government win so far. In July, the UK Ministry of Defence chose the company to deliver CORVUS, the British Army's new surveillance capability, under a program worth up to £400 million, about $530 million, over ten years. CORVUS is built on Tekever's AR5 and replaces the Army's aging Watchkeeper drones. Tekever passed a £1 billion valuation in May 2025, when it also announced a five-year, £400 million UK investment program called Overmatch. Tech Funding News described the new price as nearly five times the company's valuation a year earlier.
Baillie Gifford's Chris Evdaimon pointed to Tekever's battlefield record as the thing competitors cannot easily copy. "Its vertically integrated, software-centric model gives it an unusual ability to translate technology into operational capability quickly, while its experience in demanding real-world environments provides a depth of learning that is extremely difficult to replicate," he said.
Why It Matters
Tekever's round is the latest sign that European defense tech has moved from niche to a mainstream asset class. Munich-based Helsing raised $1.8 billion at an $18 billion valuation in July, and Quantum Systems raised $1.2 billion at $8 billion the same month. In the US, Anduril raised $5 billion at a $61 billion valuation in May. PitchBook data cited by Tech Funding News shows global venture funding for defense technology hit a record $49.1 billion in 2025, up from $27.2 billion a year earlier.
Tekever's position in that field is distinct. Helsing and Quantum focus heavily on strike drones and battlefield software. Tekever has built its business on persistent surveillance and reconnaissance, where AI handles sensor fusion, target detection and autonomous flight over long missions. Tens of thousands of combat hours in Ukraine give it a training and validation dataset that newer entrants cannot buy. For AI investors, that is the real asset: models refined against a live adversary, not in simulation.
The M&A plan matters too. If Mendes is right about consolidation, a well-funded Tekever could become an acquirer of the smaller European drone, sensor and autonomy startups that raised money in the post-2022 boom but lack sovereign contracts. Governments deciding whether to build one or two national champions will be watching who ends up owning what.
What to Watch
The next markers are the additional Series D closings and which strategic investors they bring in, especially any government-linked or industrial partners. Watch for Tekever's first acquisition under the new plan, likely in software, sensors or manufacturing capacity in the UK or France, as well as delivery milestones on CORVUS. How far Tekever pushes into the US market, where Crescent Cove says it is expanding and where the company already has a North Carolina office, will show whether a surveillance-focused European player can compete with Anduril on its home turf.
“The fund raise is precisely designed to support that growth, not only organically, developing new technology, but through acquisitions.”— Ricardo Mendes, Founder and CEO, Tekever