Beyond Vision Raises €28 Million to Build Drone Factories

Beyond Vision, the Portuguese drone maker, completed the first close of a Series A above over €28 million on October 22, 2026. Índico Capital Partners and Lince Capital co-led the round, and ActiveCap, a shareholder since 2024, put in more money.

The firm now employs 150 people in Alverca do Ribatejo, beat its 2025 sales target, and says the cash is for factory floor, parts stock, AI software and foreign sales, not a quiet software lab.

The First Close Is a Factory Round

On its own account, Beyond Vision called the deal the first close of its Series A and said the money will speed AI and swarm work as well as its push into new countries. Valuation was not disclosed. Founded in 2013 by Dário Pedro, the chief executive, and Luís Miguel Campos, the chairman, the company started on software and moved into airframes with onboard AI and a cloud control stack named beXStream.

Beyond Vision completes the first close of its Series A.
The round was co-led by Índico Capital Partners and Lince Capital, with follow-on investment from ActiveCap. This will accelerate AI and swarm development and expand our global presence.

We are ready for the next chapter! pic.twitter.com/kjBIT7qKJE

— Beyond Vision (@BeyondVision_pt) October 22, 2026

Pedro said the new capital will strengthen operating kit and industrial output to meet global demand for unmanned systems, deepen AI in the cloud platform, and back sales in defence, security and the watch over critical infrastructure. That is a production brief. Índico, which usually writes cheques between €250,000 and €10 million, is co-leading a much larger syndicate, which is the tell that Portuguese funds are now underwriting hardware volume, not another seed software bet.

In critical sectors such as defence, infrastructure management, and security, the reliance on cutting-edge, reliable, and sovereign technology is now a strategic priority for many countries. Beyond Vision has redefined this market by combining high-precision hardware with advanced artificial intelligence algorithms at a very competitive cost. This investment will give Beyond Vision the financial robustness needed to scale production and compete globally in important segments of autonomous unmanned vehicles.

Stephan de Moraes, Managing General Partner, Índico Capital Partners, round statement

Tomás Lavin Peixe, head of venture capital at Lince Capital, tied the cheque to European defence spending and to a Portuguese firm that can sell abroad. ActiveCap first invested in December 2024 through its Portuguese Growth Fund. Banco Português de Fomento added a €2 million co-investment in 2025 under its Deal-by-Deal programme with ActiveCap, already aimed at staff, capital structure and output. The October close sits on that earlier stack.

Where Beyond Vision Will Spend the €28 Million

Pedro told interviewers the aim is more production area, more stock of scarce parts, and more people, spread across Alverca, where the headquarters already sits, Oeiras, where building work is starting, and Trofa, where the company has bought its own site for the northern team. Headcount is 150, up from 76 in October 2025. The 2026 output target is capacity for about 500 VTOL aircraft and about 800 multirotors.

THREE SITES ON THE MAP

• Alverca do Ribatejo: Headquarters and main plant, previously expanded from 2,000 to 4,000 square metres in a €5 million job that predates this close.
• Oeiras: New works now starting inside a local drone cluster, adding floor space rather than a second brand.
• Trofa: Purchased premises for the northern team, so design and build are not bottled up on the Tagus.

Those three addresses matter more than the round’s branding. A first close above over €28 million is enough to hold long-lead batteries, radios and gimbals, and to run more than one shift, which is what a defence buyer actually tests when it asks whether a small NATO-listed maker can deliver dozens of airframes, not three prototypes. The company also flags Europe, the United States, Canada and Brazil as the sales map, with defence, security and critical infrastructure as the wedge.

Airframes Already Flying With the Navy

The catalogue is already in uniform. Since 2022 Beyond Vision has been a partner to the Portuguese Navy, which took a fleet of six HEIFU multirotors and six BVT516 VTOL aircraft, licences for beXStream, and more than 20 payloads, among them 4K cameras, LiDAR, multispectral sensors, zoom lenses and thermal imagers. The Army has used the same family. The BVT516, sold as VTOne, is the long-endurance hybrid: vertical lift for tight decks, wing-borne cruise for range.

CURRENT CLASS 3 LINE

The BVT516’s own product page lists 180-minute hybrid VTOL endurance, a 120 km/h wing-borne top speed, a 16 kg maximum take-off weight and a 2 kg payload, on a 12S lithium-ion pack at 44.4 V (two cells of 20,000 mAh). Radios can be specified in L, S or C band, with claimed links out to 12 km, 30 km or 100 km, plus 4G and 5G. Development norms cited on company sheets include NATO AEP 83 and AEP 89. The BVQ418, a portable quad, carries the heavier useful load. A larger BVQ825 octocopter sits on the public site without a full public spec sheet beside those three.

A company representative said at the World Defense Show 2026 in Riyadh that airframes had gone to Ukraine about three months before that February event, with another batch due later in 2026. The model named for that work was the BVH616 HEIFU Pro, described as built to NATO standards, with about 60 minutes on station with a 3.5 kg load, redundant links, and flight software meant to hold attitude under electronic attack. That is an attritable, mid-size aircraft, not a museum piece waiting on this round.

Japan Ranked the Interceptor First

On July 17, 2026, Beyond Vision said Japan’s Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency had picked it for a Counter-UAS proof-of-concept run and had ranked first for ATLA trials with the BVQ404 interceptor. The company describes that airframe as a compact counter-drone interceptor for fast, short-notice shots at hostile unmanned aircraft, with a small logistics tail, to be flown in ATLA’s Early Acquisition Program by the Self-Defense Forces. Other firms are in the same program; Beyond Vision says the BVQ404 posted the highest scores and became first in the order of interest.

That ranking is the export test the Series A has to underwrite. An interceptor that wins a paper evaluation still has to be built in numbers, with seekers, batteries and radios that can be replaced after each shot. Pedro’s list, more floor, more parts, more people, is the unglamorous answer to a Japanese shortlist, a Navy fleet and a Ukrainian resupply all landing on the same small Portuguese line.

Why Europe Is Paying for Sovereign Drones

The round closed inside a procurement wave, not beside it. The Council of the EU adopted the SAFE instrument on May 27, 2025, letting the Commission raise up to €150 billion in defence loans for member states, with drones among the named uses, as the first pillar of the ReArm Europe / Readiness 2030 plan that aims to unlock over €800 billion. Contracts under SAFE are meant to keep most component cost inside the EU, the EEA-EFTA group, or Ukraine. A Portuguese maker that already holds NATO supplier registration is built for that rule in a way a Chinese commercial quad, or a purely American kit, is not.

The European Defence Agency made that concrete on Portuguese soil. From September 28, 2026, more than 200 innovators, officers and users and over 40 firms gathered for operational trials at Santa Margarida, folded into the Portuguese Army’s ARTEX 26 campaign, with a high-visibility day on October 14. After the 2025 OPEX run in Italy, EDA invited three firms back as the most useful on cross-domain logistics: Schiebel of Austria, ARX Robotics of Germany, and Beyond Vision, which fielded a low-cost, attritable unmanned aircraft for high-risk jobs. The company said it spent almost four weeks on that range.

THE YEAR THE BUYERS SHOWED UP

1. May 27, 2025: Council adopts SAFE, opening up to €150 billion in loans for European defence kit, including drones.
2. July 17, 2026: ATLA lists the BVQ404 interceptor first for Japan’s counter-UAS early-acquisition trials.
3. September 28, 2026: EU OPEX and ARTEX 26 open at Santa Margarida with Beyond Vision among the invited logistics teams.
4. October 15, 2026: The company reports a month of REPMUS flying with the Portuguese Navy and NATO, including links in GNSS-denied air, live ISR, and UAV swarms.
5. October 22, 2026: First close of the Series A, above over €28 million, co-led by Índico and Lince.

REPMUS is the world’s large robotic maritime trial. Flying there, then raising a factory round a week later, is the sequence European defence staffs say they want: prove the aircraft with the Navy, then buy the line that can repeat the sortie. The raise does not create that demand. It tries to catch it.

A U.S. Order and a Plant on the Calendar

The dual-use book is already partly American. In 2025 Beyond Vision signed a United States contract of at least €15 million to supply 300 emergency drones by 2028, docked in boxes that open and launch when a call comes in, with a claimed 40-minute endurance, daylight and thermal cameras, and a 1.5 kg load. Pedro Figueiredo, the sales director, has said an ambulance can take 20 to 30 minutes, while the aircraft is meant to be overhead in five, so dispatchers can decide how many crews to send. That is a civil product with a defence-adjacent supply chain, and it is why the firm also talks about a United States factory in 2027, budgeted at €50 million.

ORDERS THAT OUTRUN THE OLD LINE

• Portuguese Navy: Six HEIFU airframes and six BVT516 VTOLs, plus beXStream and more than 20 payloads, from a 2022 partnership into a 2023 delivery.
• Ukraine: A first batch sent around late 2025, with a further HEIFU Pro shipment discussed in February 2026.
• United States: At least €15 million for 300 emergency drones through 2028, with a separate €50 million plant plan for 2027.
• Canada: A June 2026 pact with Toronto-based Arcanus Aerial Systems for build, sales and support, including Canadian-financed export deals.

In France at Eurosatory 2026 the company also signed with Gremsy, whose gimbals and cameras can be built to U.S. National Defense Authorization Act rules, and with Spain’s Indef on a maritime drone for special-operations trials under NATO. Those deals are how a 150-person shop tries to sell into American and alliance tenders without waiting for the 2027 plant. They also add payload and hull work that the Alverca, Oeiras and Trofa floors have to absorb if the Series A is going to mean more than a press note.

Swarm Software Heads to EURONAVAL

beXStream is the piece that turns a crate of aircraft into a unit. The company sells it as the single pane for planning, flying, watching and reviewing missions, including from the cloud, which is how a Navy fleet of a dozen hulls is meant to be run without a unique pilot for each one. The Series A language puts more AI, and swarm behaviour, on that same stack. At REPMUS the firm already advertised swarms, GNSS-denied links and night ISR, so the software spend is a continuation of trials, not a fresh slogan.

The public calendar is now naval. Future Forces 2026 in Prague opened October 21, the day before the close, with Beyond Vision showing the same collaborative unmanned kit. EURONAVAL 2026 in Paris opens on November 3, and the company says it will present its AI-powered drones and management system there and reveal its first autonomous underwater vehicle. That hull is still a promise. The factory round is the cheque that has to keep the airframes, the interceptor and that unshown underwater system on the same payroll.

Pedro’s three-site plan, Japan’s interceptor ranking, the Navy’s twelve aircraft and a first close above over €28 million now sit on one page. The next test is whether Alverca, Oeiras and Trofa can turn that page into hundreds of flyable machines before the SAFE money and the 2028 American emergency order come due.