In January, Terra, a West Africa-based startup building autonomous security systems, announced that it had raised $11.75 million. Now, the company has raised an additional $22 million. The round was led by Lux Capital and Olugbenga Agboola, the co-founder of the Nigerian unicorn, Flutterwave. Existing backers like Joe Lonsdale’s 8VC and Nova Global doubled down. The company says the round closed in under two weeks.
For a startup founded in 2024 by Nathan Nwachukwu, 22, and Maxwell Maduka, 24, that speed says something about investor appetite. Defense tech and autonomous systems have been drawing serious capital globally. What’s different here is geography. Terra is building from Nigeria, for African terrain and infrastructure.
The company produces long- and mid-range drones, autonomous sentry towers, and unmanned ground vehicles. Terra said its systems currently protect infrastructure assets valued at roughly $11 billion across the continent, including hydropower plants in Nigeria and gold and lithium mining operations in Ghana. In environments where response times matter and terrain can stretch for miles, autonomous monitoring offers coverage that static guards cannot.
It said it would use the fresh capital to build up capacity in its Abuja factory to produce 40,000 drones annually. Nwachukwu says construction on a larger “mega factory” will begin in a few weeks at an undisclosed location. Manufacturing scale, not product design, is now the bottleneck.
“The entire funding had far exceeded expectations,” Nwachukwu said, adding that he initially hoped to secure around a sixth of what has been raised so far. “The company is making a lot of strides in government and military contracts and there’s a need to massively expand our manufacturing capability.”
That government and military traction is key. Across Africa, infrastructure protection has often depended on imported equipment or foreign contractors. A locally built alternative changes the equation. It shortens supply chains and could make procurement less dependent on overseas politics.
Terra also recently announced plans to expand manufacturing beyond Africa through a joint factory deal with AIC Steel in Saudi Arabia.
Ogbonda Chivumnovu
