A major investor and longtime supporter of former U.S. President Donald Trump, Joe Lonsdale, has led an $11.7 million funding round into a Nigerian defence technology startup developing autonomous drones and security systems for Africa.
The seed financing was spearheaded by 8VC, the venture capital firm co-founded by Lonsdale and famed for backing tech innovators. Other global investors in the round include Lux Capital, SV Angel, Valor Equity Partners, Leblon Capital, Silent Ventures, and Nova Global.
The Abuja-based company — known as Terra Industries or Terrahaptix — was co-founded in 2024 by young Nigerian tech entrepreneurs Nathan Nwachuku (22) and Maxwell Maduka (24) to develop homegrown defence drones, unmanned ground vehicles, and autonomous surveillance systems aimed at tackling terrorism, infrastructure threats, and security challenges across the continent.
With this fresh capital injection, Terra plans to expand its manufacturing capacity, accelerate product development, and scale deployments across key African markets. The startup already operates a manufacturing facility in Abuja and claims its technologies are used to safeguard critical assets, including power plants and mining sites valued at billions of dollars in Nigeria and Ghana.
A non-executive director at Palantir and 8VC partner, Alex Moore, has also joined Terra’s board, bringing additional defence sector expertise.
Terra’s rise highlights increasing global investor interest in African defence tech and efforts by local innovators to build scalable, locally adapted autonomous security solutions.
