Terra Industries, a defense technology company specializing in autonomous security systems to protect Africa’s critical infrastructure, has raised an additional $22 million in funding led by Lux Capital. This extension follows a previously announced $11.8 million round, bringing the total raised in this round to $34 million. Existing investors, including 8VC, Nova Global, Silent Ventures, Belief Capital, Tofino Capital, and Resilience17 Capital, participated, alongside angel investors such as Jordan Nel and Jared Leto.
The funding round was completed in under two weeks, reflecting strong investor interest in security technology as African governments and infrastructure operators face threats from sabotage, illegal mining, organized crime, and terrorism. Founded in 2024 by Nathan Nwachuku and Maxwell Maduka, Terra Industries designs and manufactures autonomous defense systems for monitoring, securing, and responding to threats across land, air, and maritime environments. Its technology is already deployed to protect power plants, mines, and other nationally critical assets across multiple African countries.
Co-founder and CEO Nathan Nwachuku emphasized the importance of security for Africa’s rapid industrialization, noting that mines, refineries, and power plants will be vulnerable without effective protection. Terra positions its locally built systems as a cost-effective and adapted alternative to imported security solutions, highlighting concerns around maintenance costs, local operating conditions, data control, and supply chain reliability. Its approach, described as “sovereign intelligence,” relies on autonomous surveillance and predictive threat detection rather than traditional troop-heavy, reactive security models.
Terra Industries is building a vertically integrated platform of autonomous security systems, including long- and mid-range drones, sentry towers, and unmanned ground vehicles, all connected through ArtemisOS, its proprietary software platform for real-time threat detection, autonomous mission planning, and coordinated response. The company currently secures infrastructure assets valued at approximately $11 billion and has signed contracts worth tens of millions of dollars, with a growing pipeline of public- and private-sector clients.
The company operates from a 15,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Abuja, Nigeria, employing primarily African engineering talent. The additional $22 million will be used to expand manufacturing capacity, accelerate deployments across Nigeria and allied African countries, and grow engineering, software, and business development teams across Africa, London, and San Francisco.
Brandon Reeves, Partner at Lux Capital, highlighted that Terra Industries aims to build a locally anchored defense technology platform to secure African sovereignty and provide essential counterterrorism capabilities, reinforcing the belief that security is foundational for economic growth across the continent.
