FuVeX raises €3M to scale dual-use drone technology across Europe

FuVeX, a Madrid-founded drone company started back in 2013 by Carlos Matilla, just pulled in €3 million in an oversubscribed round. Backers include SODENA, SEGO Venture, Izertis Ventures, and a handful of family offices with roots in industry, agriculture and innovation. The company says it already has commitments lined up for future rounds too, which tells you the pitch is landing with more than just this one group.

What FuVeX actually builds is long-range drones paired with AI-powered analytics, aimed at automating inspection work on things like power lines and other critical infrastructure. The pitch is dual-use by design: the same platform that inspects an electrical grid can serve defence customers, and its drones can fly beyond visual line of sight for up to 10 kilometres. That's not a small technical detail — it's the difference between sending a human up a pylon and sending a machine instead, cutting both cost and risk.

The track record so far is concrete. FuVeX has inspected more than 36,000 kilometres of power lines through contracts with UFD, Naturgy's distribution arm, and Endesa. The company wants to push that further, targeting inspection of 70% of Spain's electricity distribution network by 2027, while also pushing into agriculture, oil and gas, and similar sectors across Europe and Latin America.

On top of the private money, FuVeX picked up €400,000 in public funding from Spain's CDTI, earmarked specifically for a defence R&D project. Matilla frames the whole raise as validation not just of the tech but of a bigger idea: building drones that are designed, manufactured and operated entirely in Europe. He points to the company's vertical integration — covering aircraft development, operations and data analysis — as what gives it the flexibility to adapt quickly and lean less on foreign suppliers.

The money itself will go toward fairly ordinary growth levers: beefing up commercial and defence operations, hiring across tech, industrial and commercial teams, boosting manufacturing capacity, and pushing into new markets. R&D spending will keep targeting drone systems for defence, security and infrastructure use, which suggests FuVeX sees those three categories as increasingly the same business.