Just a month after raising $11.75 million in a round led by Joe Lonsdale’s 8VC, African defense technology firm Terra Industries has announced that it has raised an additional $22 million in funding, led by Lux Capital.
Nathan Nwachuku, 22, and Maxwell Maduka, 24, launched Terra Industries in 2024 to design infrastructure and autonomous systems to help African nations monitor and respond to threats.
Terrorism remains one of Africa’s biggest threats, but much of the security intelligence its nations rely on comes from Russia, China or the West. In January, CEO Nwachuku said his aim was to build “Africa’s first defence, to build autonomous defense systems and other systems to protect our critical infrastructure and resources from armed attacks”.
At the time, Terra had just won its first federal contract. The company has government and commercial clients, and Nwachuku said Terra has already generated more than $2.5 million in commercial revenue and protected around $11 billion worth of assets.
He said this round of extensions came quickly due to “strong momentum”. Other investors in this round include 8VC, Nova Global and Resiliience17 Capital, founded by Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga Agboola. Nwachuku said investors have seen “faster than expected traction” on deals and partnerships, creating an urgent need to anticipate and increase their commitment. The round was completed in less than two weeks, bringing the company’s total funding to $34 million.
The extended increase is not that surprising. After all, building a defense company isn’t cheap. By comparison, Anduril has raised more than $2.5 billion in funding; ShieldAI has raised around $1 billion in equity; Drone maker Skydio raised around $740 million and maritime autonomous vessel maker Saronic about $830 million.
Since January, Nwachuku said the company has begun expanding into other yet-to-be-announced African countries (Terra is based in Nigeria) and has secured more government and commercial contracts, including with AIC Steel, with more to be revealed this year.
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The partnership with AIC Steel allows Terra to establish a joint manufacturing facility in Saudi Arabia focused on building surveillance infrastructure and security systems. “It is our first major production expansion outside of Africa,” he said.
“The priority is to work with countries where terrorism and infrastructure security are a major national concern,” Nwachuku added, citing in particular those in sub-Saharan Africa and the Sahel region. He said many of these companies have lost not only billions in infrastructure but also thousands of lives over the past few decades.
“We are targeting major economies where the need for infrastructure security is urgent and where our solutions can have a meaningful impact. So we are thinking about expansion.”