African startup Terra Industries, founded by two Gen Zers, raises an additional $22 million in one month

Just one month after raising $11.75 million in a round led by Joe Lonsdale’s 8VC, African defense technology startup 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 intelligence its countries rely on comes from Russia, China or the West. In January, CEO Nwachukwu said his goal was to build “Africa’s first defense system, to build independent 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 Nwachukwu said Terra had already generated more than $2.5 million in commercial revenue and was protecting assets worth about $11 billion.

He said this extension round came quickly due to “strong momentum.” Other investors in the round include 8VC, Nova Global, and Resilience17 Capital, which was founded by Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga Agboola. Nwachukwu said investors saw “faster-than-expected traction” in terms of deals and partnerships, creating an urgency to anticipate and increase their commitment. The round was completed in just under two weeks, bringing the company’s total funding to $34 million.

The extended increase is not surprising. Ultimately, building a defense company is not cheap. By comparison, Anduril has raised more than $2.5 billion in funding; ShieldAI has raised approximately $1 billion in equity; Drone maker Skydio raised about $740 million, and autonomous marine ship maker Saronic raised about $830 million.

Since January, Nwachukwu said the company has begun expanding into other yet-to-be-announced African countries (Terra is based in Nigeria), and has secured more government and commercial contracts, including with AIC Steel, with more set to be unveiled this year.

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

“The priority is to work with countries where terrorism and infrastructure security are key national concerns,” Nwachukwu added, citing those within sub-Saharan Africa and the Sahel in particular. Many of these companies have not only lost billions in infrastructure, but also thousands of lives in the past few decades, he said.

“We are focused on targeting major economies where the need for infrastructure security is urgent and where our solutions can make a meaningful impact. This is how we think about scaling.”