African defensetech Terra Industries, founded by two Gen Zers, raises additional $22M in a month | TechCrunch

Just one month after raising $11.75 million in a round led by Joe Lonsdale’s 8VC, African defensetech Terra Industries announced that it’s 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 the biggest threats in Africa, but much of the security intelligence on which its nations rely on come from Russia, China, or the West. In January, CEO Nwachuku said his goal was to build “Africa’s first defense prime, 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 had already generated more than $2.5 million in commercial revenue and was protecting assets valued at around $11 billion.

He said this extension round came fast due to “strong momentum.” Other investors in the round include 8VC, Nova Global, and Resiliience17 Capital, which was founded by Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga Agboola. Nwachuku said investors saw “faster-than-expected traction” regarding deals and partnerships, which created urgency to preempt and increase their commitment. The round came about in just under two weeks, bringing the company’s total funding to $34 million.

The extended raise is not that surprising. Afterall, building a defense company is not cheap. For comparison, Anduril has raised more than $2.5 billion in funding; ShieldAI has raised around $1 billion in equity; drone maker Skydio has raised around $740 million, and naval autonomous vessel maker Saronic, has raised around $830 million.

Since January, Nwachuku said the company has started expanding into other African nations yet to be announced (Terra is based in Nigeria), and has secured more government and commercial contracts, including with AIC Steel, with more to be revealed this year.

The partnership with AIC Steel lets Terra establish a joint manufacturing facility in Saudi Arabia focused on building surveillance infrastructure and security systems. “It’s our first major manufacturing expansion outside Africa,” he said.

“The priority is working with countries where terrorism and infrastructure security are major national concerns,” Nwachuku added, citing those falling within the sub-Saharan African and Sahel region in particular. He said many of these companies have not only lost billions in infrastructure, but also thousands of lives in the past few decades.

“We’re focused on targeting major economies where the need for infrastructure security is urgent and where our solutions can make a meaningful impact. That’s how we think about expansion.”