Tekever closes first tranche of 500 million euro round at 5.5 billion value
The Portuguese drone maker is hunting acquisitions after the first close, and its chief executive said a listing is on the horizon.
Tekever, a Portuguese maker of surveillance drones, has completed the first close of a funding round targeting €500 million, or about $580 million, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. The round values the company at €5.5 billion, roughly five times the €1.2 billion it reached in May last year.
Chief executive Ricardo Mendes said the money is meant to fund acquisitions as well as internal development. "The fund raise is precisely designed to support that growth, not only organically, developing new technology, but through acquisitions," he said. The company is raising from both new and existing backers.
Mendes also said the defence technology market will go through what he called tremendous consolidation in coming years, and that an initial public offering is "on our horizon". He gave no timetable, and the phrase commits Tekever to nothing.
The two accounts of the round use different currencies. Bloomberg gives the €5.5 billion valuation and the €500 million target. CNBC put the valuation at $6.4 billion, which is the euro figure converted. Neither account names the investors in the first close, nor says how much of the €500 million it raised.
CNBC tied the valuation to defence spending driven by the war in Ukraine. Neither account gives Tekever's revenue. A first close is not a completed round, and the rest of the €500 million may not be raised on these terms, or at all.