Terra Industries, a Nigerian defense-technology startup, has raised an additional US$22 million from investors including backers linked to Olugbenga Agboola, the CEO of Flutterwave.
- •This has extended the startup’s latest funding round from a previously disclosed US$11.8 million raise to US$34 million.
- •Founded in 2024 by Nathan Nwachuku and Maxwell Maduka, Terra Industries develops autonomous drones, sentry towers, unmanned ground vehicles, and maritime surveillance systems.
- •The extension was led by Lux Capital and included participation from existing backers such as 8VC, Nova Global, Silent Ventures, Belief Capital, Tofino Capital and Resilience17 Capital, a venture firm founded by Olugbenga Agboola, alongside angel investors including Jordan Nel and Jared Leto.
“Africa is industrializing faster than any other region, with new mines, refineries, and power plants emerging every month. But none of that progress will matter if we don’t solve the continent’s greatest Achilles’ heel, which is insecurity and terrorism,” said Nathan Nwachuku, co-founder and CEO of Terra Industries.
Terra's systems are coordinated through ArtemisOS, the company’s proprietary software platform for real-time threat detection, autonomous mission planning and coordinated response.
The company also said its technology is already deployed to protect infrastructure assets valued at approximately US$11 billion, including power plants and mining operations across multiple African countries, and has secured tens of millions of dollars in contracts across both public and private sectors.
Terra operates a 15,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Abuja, where it designs and builds its systems using locally based engineering talent. The startup says local manufacturing and integrated software capabilities have enabled it to compete with foreign defense contractors by offering faster deployment and maintaining data sovereignty for governments and infrastructure operators.
The additional funding will be used to expand manufacturing capacity, scale deployments across Nigeria and other African markets, and hire engineering, software and business development staff across Africa, London and San Francisco.
Terra is positioning itself as what it describes as Africa’s first vertically integrated defense prime contractor, aiming to reduce the continent’s dependence on imported defense and surveillance systems from Western and Asian suppliers.
Investor interest in the company comes as Africa accelerates infrastructure and industrial investment, with roughly US$100 billion deployed annually across sectors such as mining, energy and transport. Much of that infrastructure is located in remote or unstable regions where sabotage, illegal mining, organized crime and insurgency have heightened demand for persistent surveillance and autonomous security systems.
The company’s latest funding strengthens its ties to Silicon Valley’s defense technology ecosystem. Earlier investors included Palantir Technologies–linked venture capital firm 8VC.
