Lisbon, May 14, 2025 (Lusa) - Portuguese drone manufacturer Tekever, the country's latest unicorn, has been awarded the 2025 Space Science and Technology Innovation Prize by the Portuguese Space Agency, at a ceremony that took place on Wednesday at the end of the New Space Atlantic Summuit conference, organised by the agency for an eighth time, and which took place in Lisbon.

The jury also awarded an honourable mention to the Expresso Project of the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences, and a "career award" to Professor Carlos Fernandes, from the Telecommunications Institute.

"It's a way of recognising the work that companies have been doing," the president of the Portuguese Space Agency, Ricardo Conde, told Lusa of the main competition, emphasising the high number of applications and the fact that the jury chose Tekever even before learning that it had been considered Portugal's latest unicorn - that is, a privately owned company worth more than $1 billion.

On 6 June, Tekever became Portugal's latest unicorn when it was officially valued at over €1.2 billion.

The company is a supplier and European leader in autonomous artificial intelligence systems.

The prize was awarded "for the impact of the technology they made called Gamalink, a communications system that is already qualified, in orbit, that is already operating on several satellites and several space probes, including missions to the sun," explained Conde.

The agency's award celebrates the most innovative initiatives by Portuguese organisations, with relevant contributions in areas such as Space Sciences, Astronomy, Radio Astronomy, Medicine and Space Exploration, Earth Observation, Space Transport, Telecommunications, Instrumentation, Space Security and Education.

The company was set up in 2001 by former students of Lisbon's Instituto Superior Técnico.

FP/ARO // ARO.

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