Terra Industries, a Nigeria-based defence technology startup co-founded by Nathan Nwachuku and Maxwell Nduka, has raised $11.75m in seed funding, one of the largest seed rounds ever recorded for an African startup.
The raise places Terra among a small but growing group of African ventures building advanced hardware and software systems once dominated by Western and Asian defence primes.
The round was led by 8VC, the US venture firm founded by Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of Palantir. Alex Moore, a board director at Palantir and specialist defence investor at 8VC, has joined Terra’s board. Other investors include Valor Equity Partners, Lux Capital, SV Angel and Nova Global.
African capital also featured prominently, with Tofino Capital, Kaleo Ventures and DFS Lab participating a sign of rising local appetite for deep-tech and security-focused ventures.
Terra had previously raised $800,000 in pre-seed funding and interest in the company intensified after it appeared on CNN, according to Nwachuku.
From Stealth to Scale
The funding announcement coincides with Terra’s emergence from stealth. Despite operating quietly until now, the company is already securing critical infrastructure valued at approximately $11bn across the continent.
Its physical footprint is unusually ambitious for a seed-stage company. Terra has built Africa’s largest drone manufacturing facility, a 15,000-square-foot factory in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. Manufacturing, the company insists, will remain firmly on African soil even as it expands globally.
“The goal is to build Africa’s first defence prime,” said Nwachuku, Terra’s chief executive. “To build autonomous defence systems and other systems to protect our critical infrastructure and resources from armed attacks.”
Nduka, the company’s chief technology officer, brings hands-on military engineering experience, having previously served in the Nigerian Navy and founded a drone company at the age of 19.
A Pan-African Defence Thesis
Terra’s strategy reflects a broader shift in African entrepreneurship, a move from consumer-facing platforms towards infrastructure, sovereignty and strategic capability.
The company takes a multi-domain approach to security, designing systems to protect assets across air, land and soon sea. Its aerial portfolio includes long-range and short-range drones. On land, Terra deploys surveillance towers and ground drones. Maritime systems, aimed at safeguarding offshore rigs and underwater pipelines, are currently in development.
All hardware is integrated through ArtemisOS, Terra’s proprietary software platform, which collects, analyses and synthesises data in real time. When threats are detected, the system alerts response forces, including security agencies, enabling rapid interception.
“We want to geofence all of Africa’s critical infrastructure and resources,” Nwachuku said.
The challenge, he added, is not firepower. “Many African armies already have that.” The deeper issue is intelligence.
Africa, he argues, remains heavily dependent on foreign intelligence supplied by Western powers, China and Russia.
“We want to take the defence of our continent’s resources and infrastructure into Africa’s own hands,” Nwachuku said. “We are the first truly Pan-African defence company.”
Military Experience Meets Venture Capital
Terra’s credibility is reinforced by the depth of experience within its team. About 40 per cent of its engineers previously served in the Nigerian military. The company is also advised by Vice Air Marshal Ayo Jolasinmi of Nigeria.
This blend of military expertise and venture backing reflects a global trend in defence innovation, where startups increasingly challenge legacy contractors by combining software-driven intelligence, autonomous systems and faster manufacturing cycles.
In Africa, however, the implications are broader. Persistent attacks on power plants, mines, pipelines and transport corridors have become a material risk to growth across energy, mining and agriculture sectors, central to the continent’s economic future.
Revenue Before Rhetoric
Unlike many early-stage defence startups, Terra is already generating revenue. The company earns income when governments and commercial clients purchase Terra systems and pay an annual fee for data processing and storage.
Nwachuku said Terra has generated more than $2.5m in commercial revenue, largely from private infrastructure protection. Current deployments include at least two hydro-power plants and several mines, with most clients based in Nigeria.
The company recently secured its first federal government contract, though details were not disclosed.
What the Funding Unlocks
The fresh capital will be used to expand manufacturing capacity across Africa, deepen Terra’s software and AI capabilities, and grow its engineering team.
While software offices will open in San Francisco and London, Terra said manufacturing will remain in Africa, with additional factories planned to support job creation.
This decision reflects a deliberate strategy to anchor value creation locally, even as the company integrates into global defence supply chains.
“It’s clear Africa today is undergoing what I see as an epic struggle for its very survival,” Nwachuku said. “The only way for us to truly break ourselves from the shackles that have held us back for the last decade or two is ensuring the core resources, the core infrastructure of the continent, are entirely protected.”
A Signal Beyond Terra
Terra’s rise comes amid growing global investor interest in defence, autonomy and critical infrastructure security, driven by geopolitical fragmentation, energy transition pressures and climate-linked instability.
For Africa, the significance runs deeper. The emergence of locally built defence technology marks a shift from dependency to participation, from being a market for imported security solutions to becoming a producer of them.
In that sense, Terra Industries is not just a startup with a large seed round. It is part of a broader re-imagining of African entrepreneurship that treats sovereignty, technology and scale not as abstractions, but as businesses that can be built, financed and grown at home.
