Terra Industries has extended its seed financing to $52 million as the autonomous defense technology company expands manufacturing in Africa and establishes its first international office in London. Existing investors 8VC, Silent Ventures, Nova Global, Belief Capital and SV Angel participated alongside new investor Norleo Space Investments and angel investor Grant Gordon.
Terra plans to use the capital to increase manufacturing capacity, accelerate deployments across the Global South and expand its engineering, operations and business development teams.
Founded in 2024 by Nathan Nwachuku and Maxwell Maduka, Terra develops autonomous defense systems across air, land and maritime environments.
The company said its technology is already protecting power plants, mines and other nationally important infrastructure valued at approximately $11 billion across multiple African countries.
Terra’s London office gives the company closer access to global defense institutions, infrastructure markets and engineering and AI talent while it continues to manufacture in Africa.
The company is also planning expansion into the Gulf, South America and South Asia.
Its second manufacturing facility, Pax-2, is scheduled to open in Ghana during Q4 2026.
At 34,000 square feet, Terra says Pax-2 will become Africa’s largest drone factory once fully operational.
The plant is expected to reach annual production capacity of approximately 50,000 units across Terra’s aerial systems portfolio by 2028.
Pax-2 follows the company’s 15,000-square-foot Pax-1 facility in Abuja, Nigeria.
Terra’s product portfolio includes long- and mid-range autonomous drones, interceptor drones, sentry towers and unmanned ground vehicles.
Those systems operate through ArtemisOS, Terra’s proprietary software platform for real-time threat detection, autonomous mission planning and coordinated responses across large environments.
KEY QUOTES:
“Critical infrastructure across the Global South is best protected by systems designed for these environments and built in the regions they protect. This funding lets us scale that work and deepen our manufacturing base.”
“It also puts us in the rooms where global defense decisions are made.”
Nathan Nwachuku, Co-Founder and CEO of Terra Industries
