€3m · Other round · Transportation · Tudela, Spain
Tudela-based FuVeX, which develops, manufactures and operates long-range drones for infrastructure inspection and defence, has closed an oversubscribed €3m financing round with investment from Sodena, SEGO Venture, Izertis Ventures and family offices linked to industry, agriculture and innovation. The company said the capital will expand its commercial and industrial capacity, support international growth in Europe and Latin America and strengthen its Defence and Security division. Cinco Días reported the round on 5 August 2026, while the company-supplied announcement also identified a separate €400,000 CDTI grant for defence R&D.
Grid contracts turn flight range into operating leverage
FuVeX's core product is an integrated inspection service: it builds the aircraft, operates the flights and processes visual, thermal and LiDAR data into aligned models that utilities can use to detect anomalies and plan maintenance. Endesa said in March 2026 that its distribution arm would deploy 17 FuVeX aircraft across a network of more than 320,000 kilometres. The aircraft are authorised to fly up to 10 kilometres beyond the pilot's visual line of sight, allowing longer stretches of linear infrastructure to be captured in one operation.
That combination matters commercially because range alone is not the finished product. A utility needs consistent data, safe operations and analysis that fits its maintenance workflow. FuVeX's control of the aircraft, operations and data layer lets it sell an end-to-end outcome while reusing the same technical stack across contracts. The company says it has inspected more than 36,000 kilometres of power lines through contracts with UFD, Naturgy's distributor, and Endesa. Naturgy described its UFD agreement as covering almost 40,000 kilometres of high- and medium-voltage lines through 2026, with an extension option to 2028.
A dual-use expansion still has two sales motions
The funding is also intended to increase manufacturing capacity and adapt the platform for agriculture, oil and gas, critical infrastructure and defence. FuVeX says it has already commercialised its first defence systems and will use the new capital for further R&D and systems tailored to armed forces and security customers. Those claims indicate that the defence move has progressed beyond a product concept, but they do not establish broad deployment.
The attraction of the dual-use model is technical reuse: aircraft, autonomy, sensors and data processing developed for demanding utility work can inform security and defence products. The execution challenge is commercial. Utilities buy against maintenance economics and safety requirements, while defence customers bring different validation, procurement and support demands. FuVeX reported that first-half 2026 sales already matched all of 2025 and that its customer base had widened from one customer in 2024 to four large customers. The round gives the company room to turn that traction into repeatable capacity without assuming that success in one market automatically transfers to the other.
Sources checked:
FuVeX company-supplied announcement · Cinco Días · Endesa · Naturgy · Tech.eu Funding Explorer
