Terra Industries has raised an additional $18 million to close a $52 million seed round and is expanding internationally with its first office in London.
Terra Industries funding and expansion
The Lagos-founded defense technology company said existing backers 8VC, Silent Ventures, Nova Global, Belief Capital and SV Angel participated in the latest tranche alongside new investor Norleo Space Investments. Other investors in earlier parts of the round include Lux Capital and Valor Equity Partners.
Terra declined to comment on its most recent valuation, but CEO Nathan Nwachuku has said the company reached a nine-figure valuation after a $22 million seed extension in February. Earlier this year the startup raised $11.75 million led by 8VC, followed by a $22 million bridge round led by Lux Capital.
Products, contracts and commercial traction
Founded in 2024 by Nathan Nwachuku and Maxwell Maduka—who were 21 and 23 respectively at launch—Terra develops autonomous systems for persistent monitoring and infrastructure protection. Its product lineup includes:
– Archer: a VTOL drone with a 1,000 km range, 13 hours of endurance, a 9-pound payload capacity and a 26-foot wingspan.
– Kallon: a solar-powered sentry tower with AI-enabled edge processing and multiple sensors to detect and track threats several kilometers away.
– Iroko: a small quadcopter designed for ISR or one-way attacks.
– Kama: an interceptor drone with a top speed of 300 km/h that has undergone trials with several militaries across West Africa and can be adapted for air-to-ground interception of vehicles.
Terra says it has secured multi-million-dollar contracts with African governments and critical infrastructure operators—particularly in oil and mining—protecting roughly $11 billion in assets. CEO Nathan Nwachuku said the company is on track to record over $100 million in contract bookings and eight figures in revenues by year-end, and is in the final stages of negotiating major contracts with several African governments and militaries.
Pax-2 manufacturing and international footprint
The company plans to use the new funding to scale manufacturing capacity in Africa and build an overseas presence. Terra announced a 34,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Ghana called Pax-2, which it describes as Africa’s largest drone factory and expects to produce up to 50,000 autonomous systems annually once fully operational in 2028. The Pax-2 site is close to completion, and Terra says it will be pivotal for fulfilling orders for unmanned and counter-unmanned aerial vehicles.
In addition to the London office, Terra is opening an office in San Francisco and establishing a presence in Washington, D.C., to support U.S. partnerships and government engagement. According to the company, the international expansion is intended to place Terra in forums where global defense decisions are made.
The new $18 million tranche brings the announced seed total to $52 million and follows earlier raises this year as Terra scales manufacturing and sales across the Global South.
