These Gen Z people have just raised $11.75 million to put Africa’s defense back into African hands

After five years of building an educational technology company, 22-year-old Nathan Nwachukwu realized that Africa was at a crossroads. He told TechCrunch that the continent is experiencing rapid industrialization. There is money, opportunity and a young, motivated population. He soon realized that the continent was on the “brink of an industrial revolution.”

“At the same time, he felt that the continent was still struggling to address what was considered one of its greatest weaknesses,” he said. “Terrorism and insecurity.” Africa It has more terrorism-related deaths Nwachukwu said it is this problem that could slow down – or even completely stop – the growth of the region.

He teamed up with his friend Maxwell Maduka, 24, and Terra Industries launched, 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 exited stealth with a $11.75 million round led by 8VC’s Joe Lonsdale.

Others in the round include Valor Equity Partners, Lux Capital, SV Angel, and Nova Global. The company had previously raised an $800,000 seed round, and Nwachukwu said others showed keen interest in the company after it was featured on CNN. African investors in the company include Tofino Capital, Kaleo Ventures and DFS Lab.

“The goal is to build Africa’s first base defense, and build independent defense systems and other systems to protect our critical infrastructure and resources from armed attacks,” said Nwachukwu, the company’s CEO. Maduka serves as the company’s CTO.

The team has military experience: 40% of its engineers held the same role in the Nigerian Army; Alex Moore of 8VC, who specializes in defense investing, is also a member of the board, and Nigerian Air Vice Marshal Ayo Gulasinmi serves as an advisor. Maduka also worked as an engineer in the Nigerian Navy and founded a drone company when he was 19 years old.

The company, based in the Nigerian capital Abuja, took a multi-disciplinary approach to product development, considering how to protect critical land, water and air infrastructure. For the air, the company produces long-range and short-range drones. On the ground, it has watchtowers and drones. The company is still developing marine technology to help protect infrastructure such as offshore rigs and underwater pipelines.

Terra powers its technology through its proprietary ArtemisOS software, which collects, analyzes and synthesizes data in real time. Once threats are detected, they alert response forces (such as security services) so they can intercept them. “We want to geo-fence all critical infrastructure and resources in Africa,” Nwachukwu said, adding that the problem is not a lack of firepower (many African militaries already have it).

Rather, it is due to a lack of sovereign intelligence, as much of the intelligence that African countries rely on comes from Western powers, China and Russia.

“We want to put the defense of our continent’s resources and infrastructure in the hands of Africa itself,” Nwachukwu continued. “We are the first truly African defense company.”

Terra recently won its first federal contract, though it said it couldn’t provide further details. The company makes money when governments and commercial customers place orders for Terra’s systems and then pay annual fees for data processing and storage. Nwachukwu said the company has generated commercial revenues of more than $2.5 million to date and is protecting assets worth about $11 billion.

Commercial revenue comes from protecting private infrastructure, such as gold mines or power plants. Terra said 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 expand and build more defense factories across Africa. It also wants to expand its programming capabilities further and grow its AI team. It will open software offices in San Francisco and London, but the company said manufacturing will remain in Africa, with more factories opening across the continent to boost job creation.

“It is clear that Africa today is going through what I consider to be an epic struggle for its survival,” Nwachukwu said. “The only way for us to truly break ourselves from the shackles that have held us back for the past decade or two is to ensure that the basic resources, the basic infrastructure of the continent, are fully protected.”