Just a month after raising $11.75 million in a round led by Joe Lonsdale's 8VC, African defense technology company Terra Industries announced it has raised an additional $22 million in funding led by Lux Capital.
Nathan Nwachukwu, 22, and Maxwell Maduka, 24, launched Terra Industries in 2024 to design infrastructure and autonomous systems to help African countries monitor and respond to threats.
Terrorism remains one of Africa's biggest threats, but much of the security information African countries rely on comes from Russia, China or the West. CEO Nwachukwu said in January that his goal was to “build Africa's first defense prime, autonomous defense systems and other systems to protect critical infrastructure and resources from armed attack.”
At the time, Terra had just won its first federal contract. The company has government and private customers, and Nwachukwu said Terra has already generated more than $2.5 million in commercial revenue and protected about $11 billion worth of assets.
He said this extended round came early due to “strong momentum.” Other investors in this round include 8VC, Nova Global, and Resilience17 Capital, founded by Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga Agboola. Nwachukwu said investors are seeing “more momentum than expected” in deals and partnerships, creating an urgency to be proactive and increase commitment. The round closed in just under two weeks and brings the company's total funding to $34 million.
Image credit: Terra Industries
The extension of the pay increase is not that surprising. After all, starting a defense company isn't cheap. For comparison, Anduril has raised over $2.5 billion in funding. ShieldAI has raised approximately $1 billion in equity. Drone maker Skydio raised about $740 million, and Navy autonomous ship maker Salonic raised about $830 million.
Nwachukwu said since January, the company has begun expanding into other African countries that have not yet been announced (Terra is based in Nigeria) and has won more government and commercial contracts, including one with AIC Steel, with more to be announced this year.
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The partnership with AIC Steel will allow Terra to establish a joint manufacturing facility in Saudi Arabia focused on building surveillance infrastructure and security systems. “This is our first major manufacturing expansion outside of Africa,” he said.
“It is a priority to work with countries where terrorism and infrastructure security are major national concerns,” Nwachukwu added, referring specifically to countries in sub-Saharan Africa and the Sahel region. He said many of these companies have not only lost billions of dollars in infrastructure over the past few decades, but also thousands of lives.
“We are focused on targeting major economies where the need for infrastructure security is urgent and where our solutions can have a meaningful impact. That's how we think about expansion.”