Terra Industries, a Nigerian autonomous systems company founded in 2024, has raised a further $18m, closing its seed round at about $52m, according to the company. The latest tranche includes existing investors 8VC, Silent Ventures, Nova Global, Belief Capital and SV Angel, alongside new investor Norleo Space Investments.

Terra did not disclose a valuation for the latest funding. CEO Nathan Nwachuku said that after a $22m seed extension led by Lux Capital in February, the company was valued in the nine-figure range.

The new capital will be used to expand manufacturing at Pax-2, a 34,000-square-foot factory in Ghana that Terra describes as Africa’s largest drone factory. The company also plans to open its first international office in London, as well as a San Francisco office and a Washington DC presence to support US government engagement.

Terra’s seed round is notable for its size outside the usual US defence-tech hubs. The company first raised $11.75m at the start of the year from 8VC, with participation from Lux Capital, Valor Equity Partners and Silent Ventures. It then added a $22m bridge round led by Lux in February.

What Terra builds

Founded by Nathan Nwachuku and Maxwell Maduka, Terra positions itself as a vertically integrated defence prime rather than a single-product drone vendor. Its hardware range includes:

• Archer, a VTOL drone with a claimed 1,000km range, 13-hour endurance, 9lb payload capacity and 26-foot wingspan;
• Iroko, a small quadcopter for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance or one-way attacks;
• Kama, an interceptor drone with a top speed of 300km/h that the company says has been trialled by several West African militaries;
• Kallon, a solar-powered sentry tower with edge AI processing and sensors to detect threats several kilometres away;
• Druma, an autonomous ground-based robotic system.

On the software side, Terra sells ArtemisOS, a platform designed to orchestrate security operations across its hardware. The company says its systems already protect assets worth about $11bn, mostly in energy and mining.

Contracts and revenue

Terra says it is on track to record more than $100m in contract bookings by the end of the year, with revenue in the eight-figure range. Current demand is concentrated in persistent monitoring and autonomous surveillance of infrastructure and high-value sites, using products such as Archer and Kallon. Nwachuku said the mix could shift as the company scales Kama.

“Our Pax-2 manufacturing facility… will be critical to fulfilling orders for unmanned and counter-unmanned aerial vehicles, which are in high demand across African militaries,” he said in a statement. 

The company has previously said it generated more than $2.5m in commercial revenue, primarily from securing high-value industrial sites such as power plants and mines. It has also signed multi-million-dollar contracts with African governments and critical infrastructure operators.

The sovereignty argument

Terra’s pitch is partly geopolitical. African defence procurement remains dominated by foreign state-backed suppliers from China, Russia and Europe. Terra argues this dependence leaves governments with fragmented, “black box” systems they cannot service locally and creates data sovereignty risks.

“Before Terra, governments and operators across Africa were often forced to rely on foreign defence systems from China, Europe, and elsewhere,” cofounder and CTO Maxwell Maduka has said.

The company says its hardware-software integration keeps sensitive security data within the client country, an argument it used to secure its first federal contract in Nigeria earlier this year. In February, Terra also signed a joint venture with AIC Steel, a Middle East infrastructure contractor, to build surveillance and security systems in Saudi Arabia, an early step outside Africa.

Investor context

Even after a $52m seed round, Terra’s capital base remains small compared with Western defence-tech companies.

Investor interest from funds such as 8VC and Lux Capital reflects a broader push into defence technology in emerging markets. But Terra will need to prove its systems can operate reliably in the Sahel and sub-Saharan Africa over the long term. Defence procurement is also closely tied to diplomacy, and displacing entrenched Chinese, Russian and European suppliers will be difficult.

The company’s immediate test is execution: completing Pax-2, converting contract bookings into delivered hardware and revenue, and building a London operation that can support expansion beyond Africa.