Terra Industries raises $22M to expand defense tech to Saudi Arabia

African defense technology startup Terra Industries has raised $22 million in an extension round led by Lux Capital. The funding round, completed in just under two weeks, also saw participation from investors 8VC, Nova Global, and Resilience17, which was founded by Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga Agboola. Nwachuku attributed the rapid completion of the extension round to strong momentum and faster-than-expected traction regarding deals and partnerships. This extension follows an $11.75 million round led by 8VC one month prior, bringing Terra’s total funding to $34 million.

Launched in 2024 by co-founders Nathan Nwachuku (22) and Maxwell Maduka (24), the Nigeria-based startup aims to become what Nwachuku describes as “Africa’s first defense prime, to build autonomous defense systems and other systems to protect our critical infrastructure and resources from armed attacks.” A defense prime is a primary contractor for defense systems. This mission is driven by regional security needs, as terrorism remains one of the biggest threats in Africa and has cost thousands of lives in the past few decades. According to Nwachuku, Terra has already generated more than $2.5 million in commercial revenue and is protecting assets valued at around $11 billion.

To scale its operations, Terra is expanding its manufacturing footprint beyond Nigeria. The company has partnered with manufacturing partner AIC Steel to establish a joint manufacturing facility in Saudi Arabia. Nwachuku noted that this partnership represents the company’s first major manufacturing expansion outside Africa. He added that the priority is working with countries where terrorism and infrastructure security are major national concerns, citing those falling within the sub-Saharan African and Sahel region in particular. Nwachuku explained that the company focuses on major economies with urgent infrastructure security needs where its solutions can deliver a meaningful impact.

The capital injection supports the high costs of building a defense company. For comparison, other companies in the sector have raised substantial capital to scale their own autonomous defense technologies:

• Anduril: more than $2.5 billion
• Shield AI: around $1 billion
• Saronic: around $830 million
• Skydio: around $740 million

Why it matters

Terra Industries is scaling its defense manufacturing footprint into Saudi Arabia while securing capital to build autonomous systems for African nations facing critical infrastructure security threats.