Beyond Vision

Beyond Vision is a Portuguese drone manufacturer based in Alverca, north of Lisbon, founded in 2013 by Dário Pedro and Luís Miguel Campos. It builds its own airframes and the software that flies them, selling to European defence ministries, police forces and infrastructure operators. The company says roughly 95 per cent of production is exported, and describes itself as a NATO-registered supplier of autonomous UAV systems.

Aircraft and Software

The line is four aircraft plus a control layer. BVH616, marketed as HEIFU PRO, is a hexacopter built to NATO environmental standards; the company says it flies up to 60 minutes with a 3.5 kg payload and uses redundant communications and onboard algorithms to hold stable flight under electronic-warfare conditions. BVT516, the VTOne, is a fixed-wing VTOL. BVQ418 and BVQ825 are a quadcopter and an octacopter. beXStream is the cloud mission-planning and command platform, and it is sold with the aircraft rather than separately — the Portuguese Navy contract includes it.

Customers and Programmes

The Portuguese Navy has operated a Beyond Vision fleet since 2022 under a multi-year contract for six HEIFU multirotors and six VTOne VTOL aircraft with payloads and beXStream. The Portuguese Army bought an undisclosed mix of aircraft, disclosed in May 2026, and is testing them for three months with the Portuguese national detachment in Slovakia; the Army declined to state quantities or value. Beyond Vision was selected for the European Defence Agency’s first Operational Experimentation campaign, OPEX 2025, and took part in the REPMUS 2025 multinational robotics exercise. It said in February 2026 that BVH616 and BVQ418 aircraft had been sent to Ukraine roughly three months earlier, with a further batch to follow; quantities were not disclosed.

Financial Position

Beyond Vision is private and does not publish accounts. Reported turnover was €2.4 million in 2024. In late 2025 management estimated it would close 2025 at about €20 million and targeted €30–40 million for 2026 — both forecasts, not results. In October 2026 the company said it had beaten its 2025 estimate, without giving the figure. It placed 28th in Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 Portugal 2025 on a reported 194 per cent growth rate.

The growth plan rests on two announcements from October and November 2025: a €15 million US contract for 300 emergency drones delivered 50 in 2026, 100 in 2027 and 150 in 2028, which the company says could expand toward 1,000 units, and a €50 million US factory intended to open in 2027. Alverca is being expanded from 2,000 to 4,000 square metres for about €5 million. Headcount was around 80 in late 2025, with a stated aim of 250 during 2026 and 800 by 2035. In April 2026 it granted Arcanus Aerial Systems the right to manufacture and support its platforms in Canada under a binding term sheet, with Canadian exclusivity tied to a minimum annual royalty.

Why It Matters

Beyond Vision is one of the few European drone makers with fielded government users rather than demonstrations, and the Navy contract, the OPEX selection and the Ukraine deliveries are real validation for a sovereignty argument that most competitors can only assert.

The scale is the problem. A company that turned over €2.4 million in 2024 has committed to a €50 million US plant, a tenfold headcount increase and a Canadian licensing partner, on the strength of one substantial export contract and forecasts it has not yet reported against. Nothing about the technology is in doubt; the question is whether the balance sheet can carry the plan.