Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.European investors are putting hundreds of millions of euros into two surveillance drone companies, Quantum Systems and Tekever, in deals that value each of the defence technology start-ups at more than \u20ac1bn.New investors are flocking to the market for defence or \u201cdual use\u201d technology, which can be used in both civilian applications and on the battlefield. The latest rounds come as the makers of drones deployed in Ukraine\u2019s war with Russia scale up production as Europe races to boost its defence capabilities, following the Trump administration\u2019s threats to withdraw US military support in the region. Munich-based Quantum Systems has raised \u20ac160mn led by Balderton Capital, in the London-based venture firm\u2019s first defence tech investment, alongside strategic backers Hensoldt and Airbus Defence and Space. The deal, which also includes existing investors including US venture capitalist and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel, values Quantum at more than \u20ac1bn, according to people familiar with the terms. \u201cThe goal is to make the battlefield transparent and have real-time aerial intelligence from every part of the front line,\u201d said Florian Seibel, co-chief executive and co-founder of Quantum Systems. \u201cYou can only shoot if you know where to shoot. So you need eyes in the sky.\u201d Separately Tekever, which was founded in Portugal in 2001, said it raised tens of millions of euros from its existing investors, led by long-term existing backer Ventura Capital. Its new valuation is \u201cbeyond \u00a31bn\u201d, Ricardo Mendes, chief executive of Tekever, told the FT, but he refused to specify the exact amount raised. Tekever last year raised \u20ac70mn in a round led by Baillie Gifford that was also backed by the Nato Innovation Fund.\u00a0Investment in European start-ups working on defence and related technologies jumped 24 per cent in 2024 to $5.2bn, according to figures from the Nato Innovation Fund and research group Dealroom.\u00a0Quantum\u2019s technology brings together drone hardware, software and artificial intelligence to build autonomous systems for real-time \u201caerial intelligence\u201d.\u00a0Its products have been used by countries including Germany, Ukraine and the US. After struggling to commercialise its drones in its initial target market of agriculture, Seibel, a former helicopter pilot in the German armed forces, decided to use commercial technology to take on traditional defence companies. \u201cThey are slow, they are expensive, they are arrogant,\u201d he said. Its new product was ready just as Russia\u2019s full scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022. Quantum generated \u20ac110mn in revenue last year and is on track to hit more than \u20ac200mn this year, Seibel said. It has production capacity in multiple countries to produce up to 4,000 drones a year in various configurations. Rana Yared, general partner at Balderton Capital, said Quantum could \u201cscale quickly\u201d to become one of the leading lights of Europe\u2019s defence tech industries. Balderton wanted to invest in Quantum, which has more than doubled its annual revenue for the past several years, because of its diversity of customers and applications, which also include mining, infrastructure and emergency services. \u201cOur goal is to invest in companies that have great trajectories in a world that is highly peaceful,\u201d Yared said. \u201cIt would be cavalier to invest in a company that only does well in this negative geopolitical [situation].\u201d Nonetheless, the battlefields of Ukraine have driven rapid growth for many defence tech start-ups, including Munich-based Helsing, which has raised hundreds of millions of euros. Mendes said the war in Ukraine had made every government \u201cin Europe aware that the nature of the technology being used in the field has changed\u201d.\u00a0Demand has been such that Tekever has been \u201cmore than doubling\u201d its production capacity every year. It expects to produce more than 200 systems this year.\u00a0One of the biggest challenges, he said, is how quickly the industry can scale up.\u00a0Tekever, which also has operations in the UK, makes AI-enabled drones for surveillance and reconnaissance missions. Two of its drones, the AR3 and the AR5, have been used extensively in Ukraine, enabling precision strikes using real-time intelligence. Other customers include the European Maritime Safety Agency and the UK Home Office.Mendes said its new funds would help Tekever, which is already profitable, to deliver on a pledge to invest \u00a3400mn in the UK over the next five years. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.European investors are putting hundreds of millions of euros into two surveillance drone companies, Quantum Systems and Tekever, in deals that value each of the defence<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-303192","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}