Participated · Equity · Nov 2024

Tekever builds AI-enabled, full‑stack unmanned aerial systems including the AR3 and AR5 drones and integrates avionics, propulsion, sensors, software and autonomy. The company has extensive operational experience in Ukraine, with its AR3 logging over 10,000 operational flight hours and its systems implicated in destroying more than £3B in Russian assets. Tekever has iterated its platforms through over 100 field updates across materials, propulsion, communications, sensors and AI based on frontline feedback. It plans to scale UK manufacturing, expand testing facilities, and establish Centres of Excellence for Autonomy to unite academia, startups and defence partners. The firm aims to create more than 1,000 skilled UK jobs and to anchor a European alternative to traditional defence primes through the OVERMATCH programme. A recent funding round has pushed Tekever’s valuation past the £1B mark and will support rapid production, testing and deployment of its sovereign defence capabilities. Tekever is a dual-use drone company founded in Portugal that also operates in the U.K. and France, developing surveillance and command drone platforms. It controls all aspects of its products—airframe design and manufacturing, payloads, avionics, software, data and AI—allowing rapid adaptation to customer needs and changing battlefield requirements. Its largest platform, the ARX, can command multiple smaller drones for land, sea or battlefield surveillance, and its systems have been deployed in Ukraine, by the European Maritime Safety Agency, and the U.K. Home Office. The company says it will use the €70M funding to develop its product and expand into new markets, specifically the U.S. Tekever bootstrapped before raising a €20M Series A in 2022 from Ventura Capital and Iberis Capital. It is not disclosing a valuation for the latest round. Tekever develops drones with integrated AI, sensors and communications tailored to monitor and detect activity on bodies of water, and sells both hardware components and drone-based surveillance services branded Atlas. The company combines edge AI, satellite communications and cloud computing to deliver near‑real‑time intelligence and predictive analytics for customers. Its drones have wingspans from about two to eight meters and flight times up to 20 hours; Tekever most commonly operates its own fleet and offers intelligence‑as‑a‑service. Customers include government agencies such as the European Maritime Safety Agency and the U.K. Home Office, as well as private shipping firms and smaller nations. Tekever was founded in 2001 and is based in Lisbon, Portugal; it began commercial services in 2018 and has been profitable for some time. The company says it expects to grow at a 60% CAGR over the next three years and plans to use new funding to hire staff and further build out its technology, including work on submarine activity detection and oil‑spill classification.

Led · Seed · Mar 2024

Ubirider offers the Ubirider Platform (cloud and smartphone‑based) for transit agencies and Pick, a rider app that plans door‑to‑door travel, enables payments and supports open‑loop contactless bank cards and mobile wallets. The platform provides agencies with fare collection, payments, operational tools and real‑time rider insights. Ubirider has deployed contactless payments with partners such as Mastercard across multiple Portuguese cities and reports more than 11.4 million transactions on its platform; implementations have driven nearly 300,000 registered users and 2.1 million tickets sold in cities including Lisbon, Évora, Faro, Beja and Cascais. Strategic partnerships with Mastercard, Deloitte, Payshop and Viva.com support its payment and MaaS capabilities. The company says it will use new funding to grow internationally and expand product development and marketing teams to bring open mobility and banking via contactless payment solutions. Ubirider is based in Porto, Portugal.