After five years building an edtech company, Nathan Nwachuku, 22, realized that Africa was at a crossroads. The continent is undergoing rapid industrialization, TechCrunch said. There is money, opportunity, and a young population, leading. He thinks, very quickly, that the continent is “on the edge of the industrial revolution.”
“At the same time,” he said, he felt the continent was still struggling to overcome one of its biggest Achilles’ heels. “Terrorism and insecurity.” Africa has other terror-related deaths from any region in the world, and this problem can slow down – or even stop completely – the growth of the region, Nwachuku said.
He teamed up with his friend, Maxwell Maduka, 24, and launched Terra Industries, a defense company that designs infrastructure and autonomous systems to help governments and organizations monitor and respond to threats. The company announced Monday that it is coming out of stealth with an $11.75 million round led by 8VC Joe Lonsdale.
Others in the round included Valor Equity Partners, Lux Capital, SV Angel, and Nova Global. The company had previously raised an $800,000 pre-seed round, and Nwachuku said others were interested in the company after appearing on CNN. African investors in the company include Tofino Capital, Kaleo Ventures, and DFS Lab.
“The goal is to build the first defense in Africa, to build autonomous defense systems and other systems to protect critical infrastructure and resources from armed attacks,” said Nwachuku, the company’s CEO. Maduka became the company’s CTO.
The team is stacked with military experience: 40% of the engineers have held similar roles in the Nigerian military; Alex Moore 8VC, who specializes in defense investment, is also on board, and Nigeria’s Air Vice Marshal Ayo Jolasinmi is an adviser. Maduka is also an engineer in the Nigerian Navy and founded a drone company at the age of 19.
The company, based in the capital of Nigeria, Abuja, takes a multi-domain approach to product development, considering how to protect critical infrastructure from land, water, and air. For air, the company produces long-range and short-range drones. On the ground, there are surveillance towers and underground drones. The company is still working to develop maritime technology to help protect infrastructure such as offshore rigs and underwater pipelines.
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Terra powers the technology with its proprietary software, ArtemisOS, which collects, analyzes, and synthesizes data in real time. Once a threat is seen, they alert response forces (such as security agencies) to intercept them. “We want to geofence all African critical infrastructure and resources,” Nwachuku said, adding that the problem is not a lack of firepower (many African armies have that).
However, there is a lack of state intelligence, as much of the intelligence that African countries rely on comes from Western powers, China, and Russia.
“We want to take the defense of our continent’s resources and infrastructure into Africa’s own hands,” Nwachuku continued. “We are the first Pan-African defense company.”
Terra recently won its first federal contract, though it said it could not provide more details. The company makes money when government and commercial customers place orders for the Terra system and then pay an annual fee for data processing and storage. Nwachuku said the company has generated more than $2.5 million in commercial revenue to date and is protecting assets worth about $11 billion.
Commercial income comes from protecting private infrastructure, such as gold mines or power plants. Terra says it protects at least two hydroelectric power plants and several small mines, with most of the company’s clients coming from Nigeria.
The company hopes to use the new capital to help develop and build more defense factories in Africa. It also wants to expand its software capabilities and expand its AI team. It will open software offices in San Francisco and London, but the company says manufacturing will remain in Africa, with more factories opening across the continent to boost its workforce.
“It is clear that Africa is currently experiencing what I see as an epic struggle for its survival,” Nwachuku said. “The only way for us to break the shackles that have held us down for the last decade or two is to ensure that our core resources, the core infrastructure of the continent, are fully protected.”