The funding round is led by Baillie Gifford and backed by the NATO Innovation Fund. New strategic investors will support a sustainable growth plan and facilitate geographic expansion into priority markets. The investments will fund continued product innovation and scaling of production capacity.
TEKEVER, a European provider of AI-centric Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), has announced that it has raised 70 Million Euros in a funding round led by Baillie Gifford, the investment manager and early backer of Airbnb, Spotify and SpaceX, and the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF), a standalone venture capital fund, backed by 24 NATO allies, that deploys €1 billion in deep tech to advance defense, security and resilience.
Other participants in the funding round include the National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF), a UK government–owned fund supporting advanced technologies related to national security, Crescent Cove Advisors LP, an investment firm based in Silicon Valley with expertise in the defence sector, and existing investors Iberis Semper and Cedrus Capital. TEKEVER was advised by The Growth Stage and Houlihan Lokey during the process.
The new investors bring strategic expertise that will fuel the next phase of TEKEVER’s growth. They provide significant sector experience and pathways to access priority markets, as well as boasting a strong track record of sustainably scaling pioneering, fast-growing companies over the long-term. Their experience will be critical in helping TEKEVER prepare for the next phases of its multinational growth strategy.
As part of its growth plan, TEKEVER, which is already profitable, will accelerate investment in R&D to support product innovation, both enhancing current UAS and developing new product lines to ensure its technology stays ahead of curve in the rapidly evolving technical landscape and its products continue to exceed customer expectations. TEKEVER will also expand its global production, delivery and support footprint to meet the ever-increasing demand for its products and services.
Ricardo Mendes, CEO of TEKEVER, commented: “We’re living in a highly volatile world, experiencing exponential change and the transformative power of software, AI and robotics. TEKEVER was built to embrace and leverage this reality, providing its customers with future-proofed, AI-centric hardware- enabled systems that are produced at scale and effectively delivered and sustained globally. For our Series B, more than investment, we wanted to find partners that shared these beliefs and could help us execute on our vision. We’re thrilled to have Baillie Gifford as a lead investor – an incredible organization with extremely long–term views, and an extensive track record of backing companies that have profoundly transformed our society. NIF, NSSIF and Crescent Cove bring profound knowledge and experience on the Global Security and Defence market to the table, both from a European and a US perspective, which will be important in helping us, and our customers, navigate the challenges ahead.”
Chris Evdaimon, Investment Manager, Private Companies at Baillie Gifford, commented: “TEKEVER is a rapidly growing and already profitable company, a rare combination in defence, national security and space start-ups. We were attracted by its approach to building drones – with a software-centric and vertically integrated model – along with the real-life experience TEKEVER has accumulated from operations in Ukraine and its work with the UK Home Office and European Maritime Safety Agency.”
Patrick Schneider-Sikorsky, Partner at the NATO Investment Fund, commented: “Unmanned Aerial System technologies are critical to advancing defence, security and resilience. We are thrilled to support TEKEVER – whose technology is revolutionising the defence and commercial intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance sectors – and look forward to collaborating with the company on identifying pathways to use its technology in order to support more governments and businesses across the Alliance”
TEKEVER provides drone-based Intelligence-as-a-Service, surveying ultra-wide areas and sharing real- time data that allows customers to act in a timely and efficient manner to avoid threats to human life, the environment and economy. Its technology is dual-use, deployed by civilian and military organisations as well as private companies, with applications ranging from detecting environmental threats such as oil spills, wildfires or flash flooding to gathering intelligence and conducting search and rescue missions for defence and security purposes.
Unlike traditional aerospace companies, TEKEVER is vertically integrated and has full control of every aspect of its subsystems and value chain, from airframe design and manufacturing to payloads, avionics, software, data and AI, which enables the company to rapidly adapt its products based on evolving customer needs and shifts in the global economic and political landscape.
Customers include the European Maritime Safety Agency and the UK Home Office, as well as multiple defence and security forces and corporations throughout Europe, North America and Southeast Asia. TEKEVER systems have been deployed to Ukraine to enable some of the most complex and demanding long range intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, performed under the most extreme operational and technical conditions.
