TEKEVER raises $580M Series D, DTCP closes €455M defence fund, and the challenge to reinvent chip design

Europe’s funding week was busy in the way these roundups like to be: more than 65 tech deals, over €2 billion in funding, and a mix of exits, acquisitions and rumours on top. But a few moves stand out because they point to where the money and attention are going right now — defence, infrastructure, and the hard industrial stuff that used to sit far from startup headlines.

TEKEVER was the biggest number on the board. The Portuguese company raised $580 million in a Series D and was valued at $6.4 billion. That is a very large vote of confidence for a company operating in a sector that has moved from niche to strategic in a hurry. Bird also surfaced with $450 million in debt, while saying its headcount had been cut from a peak of 1,000 to 120. Different kind of story, same sense that the market is rewarding efficiency and scale in equal measure.

Then there’s the investor side. DTCP closed a €455 million defence fund aimed at scaling Europe’s strategic tech capabilities. Final Frontier and Myriad joined forces behind a €100 million defence tech fund, while NewSchool VC closed a €10 million Fund I for early-stage B2B tech. Project Ventures also launched a £5 million fund for Imperial-rooted deeptech and AI startups. The common thread is pretty clear: capital is getting more deliberate, and defence is no longer a side bet.

The policy and industrial layer matters too. SPRIND and NADI launched a €40 million challenge to reinvent European chip design, and that sits in the same broader push as the funding news. Europe keeps talking about strategic independence, but here are the actual checks and programmes behind the phrase. Not flashy, not effortless, and probably exactly the point.