Portuguese Space Agency honours UPTEC startup

The 2025 Space Science and Technology Innovation Prize was awarded to the GAMALINK project, led by TEKEVER, a company based at UPTEC – Science and Technology Park of the University of Porto.

A few days after being named Portugal’s latest “unicorn” company, TEKEVER, founded and led by Ricardo Mendes, was recognised by the Portuguese Space Agency for its work in developing innovative technologies for the aerospace market.

The award-winning project, GAMALINK, is a radio frequency communications system used for in-orbit communication in missions, satellites or space probes.

With operations in six European countries and a team of more than 1,000 people, TEKEVER currently has engineering centres in the UK, Portugal and France, production facilities in various European markets and operational support teams across Europe.

In addition to the focus on aerospace engineering, its systems are used in missions by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) and various European navies and armed forces, as well as providing direct operational support to Ukraine.

The 2025 Space Science and Technology Innovation Award was presented during the 8th edition of the New Space Atlantic Summit, which took place on 13 and 14 May.

The Portuguese Space Agency’s initiative celebrates the most innovative projects by Portuguese organisations with relevant contributions in areas such as Space Sciences, Astronomy, Radio Astronomy and Telecommunications