Tekever announced the first close of a $580 million Series D on September 23 at a $6.4 billion valuation, led by UC Investments and Baillie Gifford, per Tekever. Merlyn Advisors joined as a new investor alongside existing holders Crescent Cove, Ventura Capital, and Iberis Capital. The UK Ministry of Defence picked Tekever to deliver CORVUS, the British Army's new surveillance capability. That program is worth up to GBP 400 million over ten years. Its systems have flown more than 50,000 hours in Ukraine since 2022, per CNBC.
This is a first close. Tekever says further closings follow to bring in strategic investors, which usually means primes or governments taking a seat. UC Investments is making its first direct European investment here. A US institution that size underwriting European defense hardware reverses a decade of American LPs avoiding the sector. Baillie Gifford beside it points at a pre-IPO posture, since Baillie Gifford tends to enter where a listing is the exit.
Defense drone valuations have repriced fast. Helsing raised $1.8 billion at $18 billion in July, and Quantum Systems raised $1.2 billion the same week. Tekever at $6.4 billion, with a ten-year UK program and Ukraine flight hours behind it, is the same trade: contracted government demand valued like software.
Bottom Line
A $6.4 billion mark on a first close, with a GBP 400 million program and 50,000 Ukraine flight hours behind it. Watch who joins at the next close, because strategic investors in defense usually arrive with procurement attached.