Terra Industries, a defense technology company building autonomous security systems to protect Africa’s critical infrastructure, has raised an additional $22 million in funding led by Lux Capital, extending a previously announced $11.8 million round and bringing total funding in the round to $34 million.
The extension included participation from existing investors, including 8VC, Nova Global, Silent Ventures, Belief Capital, Tofino Capital and Resilience17 Capital, founded by Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga Agboola. Angel investors included Jordan Nel and Jared Leto.
The company said the round was completed in under two weeks, signaling strong investor interest in security technology as African governments and infrastructure operators contend with sabotage, illegal mining, organized crime and terrorism.
Founded in 2024 by Nathan Nwachuku and Maxwell Maduka, Terra Industries designs and manufactures autonomous defense systems that help governments and infrastructure operators monitor, secure and respond to threats across land, air and maritime environments. The company said its technology is already deployed to protect power plants, mines and other nationally critical assets across multiple African countries.
According to Nathan Nwachuku, co-founder and CEO, Terra Industries, “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.”
Terra is pitching its technology as a locally built alternative to imported security systems, which infrastructure operators across the continent still rely on. The company argues those systems can be costly to maintain, poorly adapted to local operating conditions and may raise concerns over data control and supply chain disruptions.
The company’s strategy is built around what it describes as “sovereign intelligence,” positioning autonomous surveillance and predictive threat detection as a replacement for troop-heavy, reactive security models.
Terra said it is building a vertically integrated platform of autonomous security systems, including long- and mid-range drones, sentry towers and unmanned ground vehicles, connected through ArtemisOS, its proprietary software platform for real-time threat detection, autonomous mission planning and coordinated response.
The company said it currently secures infrastructure assets valued at about $11 billion and has signed contracts worth tens of millions of dollars, with a pipeline spanning public- and private-sector customers.
Terra designs and manufactures its systems on the continent, operating from a 15,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Abuja, Nigeria, with an engineering team it said is composed primarily of African talent.
The additional $22 million will be used to expand manufacturing capacity, accelerate deployments across Nigeria and allied African countries, and grow the company’s engineering, software and business development leadership teams across Africa, London and San Francisco.
“We believe in a future where local defense technology prevails, because security is the prerequisite for all economic growth. That’s why Terra Industries is building the African defense prime that secures sovereignty and provides the necessary counterterrorism technology on the continent,” said, Brandon Reeves, Partner, Lux Capital
