Nigerian defence-tech startup Terra Industries has raised a further $18 million, bringing its total seed funding to $52 million and cementing its position as the largest seed round ever closed by an African defence company.
The new capital drew a mix of fresh and returning investors. Norleo Space Investments and angel investor Grant Gordon participated as new investors, alongside existing backers 8VC, Silent Ventures, Nova Global, Belief Capital, and SV Angel.
Where the Money Is Going
Terra says the fresh capital is earmarked for international expansion as much as production capacity. The company will use the funds to open its first international office in London, expand its manufacturing capacity, accelerate deployment of its products across the Global South, and grow its engineering, operations, and business development teams.
Co-founder and CEO Nathan Nwachuku framed the raise as both an operational and strategic move. He said critical infrastructure across the Global South is best protected by systems designed for those environments and built in the regions they protect, adding that the funding lets Terra scale that work, deepen its manufacturing base, and gain access to the rooms where global defence decisions are made.
A Fast-Moving Fundraising Year
The $18 million close caps an unusually rapid run of fundraising for the two-year-old company. The raise comes amid a busy year for Terra, which raised $11.75 million in January, the largest funding round in the African defence-tech sector at the time, and followed it a month later with a $22 million round led by Lux Capital. In the months since, the company has announced a 34,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Ghana and signed a memorandum of understanding with Nigeria’s Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) to establish a joint venture for local production of defence systems.
What Terra Builds
Founded in 2024 by Nwachuku and Maxwell Maduka, Terra designs autonomous systems for governments and infrastructure operators. Its products include long- and mid-range autonomous drones, interceptor drones, sentry towers, and unmanned ground vehicles, all connected through ArtemisOS, Terra’s proprietary software platform that enables real-time threat detection, autonomous mission planning, and coordinated responses. The company says its technology already protects nationally critical assets worth approximately $11 billion across several African countries.
Manufacturing Footprint Keeps Growing
Terra’s factory expansion is central to its pitch that Africa can build its own defence hardware. The company already operates its 15,000-square-foot Pax-1 facility in Abuja, Nigeria, while its second factory, Pax-2, a 34,000-square-foot facility in Ghana, is expected to open in Q4 2026 and reach an annual production capacity of 50,000 units across Terra’s aerial systems portfolio by 2028. Beyond Ghana and Nigeria, the company plans to extend its manufacturing footprint across the Gulf, South America, and South Asia.
What Terra’s Rapid Scale-Up Signals for African Deep Tech
Terra’s ability to stack three funding rounds in under eight months, closing at a combined $52 million, signals unusually strong investor appetite for African-built defence infrastructure at a time when most VC capital on the continent still concentrates in fintech and e-commerce. The London office and Global South expansion plans also suggest Terra is positioning itself less as a Nigerian startup and more as an emerging player in global defence-tech supply chains, an ambition few African hardware companies have attempted at this pace.
