The company announced on August 17 via its website that it had raised an additional $18 million, taking its seed funding to $52 million. The trajectory signals rising investments in, not just defence technologies, but made-in-Africa security solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the company, the latest funding would be used to support manufacturing, engineering, operations and business development teams, as well as deployments across Africa and other markets in the Global South. It also includes funding for the Ghana plant, which Terra notes, once functional, is expected to become the largest drone factory on the continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Business Insider Africa<\/em>, the Ghana facility is a more defined version of the company\u2019s earlier plan to expand its manufacturing base beyond Nigeria. It is designed to produce Terra\u2019s aerial-systems portfolio. Its planned capacity is more than three times the size of the company\u2019s existing Abuja factory by floor area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At 34,000 sq. ft., the plant is expected to reach an annual capacity of 50,000 drones by 2028, the company said on its website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Pax-2 project gives Ghana a direct role in the company\u2019s next regional production phase, while Nigeria remains home to its original factory and founding team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nwachukwu explained that Ghana was the right choice for the expansion because of talent and positioning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe chose Ghana for Pax-2 because of its talent, strategic position, and political will to become a serious defence exporter and prove that this can be done at scale,\u201d he said, according to Techpoint Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Terra added that its funding would also be used to open the London office, which it notes gives the company direct access to world-class operations and institutions that shape global defence and infrastructure markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis funding lets us scale that work and deepen our manufacturing base. It also puts us in the rooms where global defence decisions are made,\u201d Nwachuku, co-founder and CEO of Terra Industries, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The firm, however, noted that manufacturing remains in Africa, with expansion planned across the Gulf, South America and South Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCritical infrastructure across the Global South is best protected by systems designed for these environments and built in the regions they protect,\u201d Nwachuku added, emphasising the importance of made-in-Africa products serving Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Terra Industries\u2019 major products, according to Tectonic Defense, a platform that reports defence news, include \u2018Archer\u2019, a drone with a 1,000km range, 13 hours of endurance, a nine-pound payload capacity and a 26-foot wingspan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is also \u2018Kallon\u2019, a solar-powered sentry tower with AI-enabled edge processing and a whole bunch of sensors to detect and track threats several kilometres away. Others include \u2018Iroko\u2019, a small quadcopter drone for one-way attacks; and \u2018Kama\u2019, described as a new interceptor drone with a top speed of 300km\/h.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kama has gone through trials with \u201cseveral militaries across West Africa\u201d and can be adapted for \u201cair-to-ground interception of enemy vehicles,\u201d Nwachuku told Tectonic earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The African drone market was valued at approximately $1.28 billion to $1.64 billion as of 2025\u20132026, and is projected to expand rapidly toward over $11 billion by the mid-2030s, according to information by Market Data Forecast, which was last updated in July 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n African governments are battling security threats posed by different terrorist roups, and defence technologies are now central to this fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Infrastructure sabotage is also driving demand for drone surveillance, as companies race to protect their investments, making Africa an expanding market for security technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moses Wambui, CEO of Kenyan research and consulting firm Insight Strategists Solutions Africa said the continent\u2019s nascent drone market has shifted from agriculture and healthcare to serving military combat and intelligence needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe penetration rate of drones in Africa is around 14% of the whole drone market in the world,\u201d he told Lagos-based News Central TV in a December 2025 broadcast, according to African Defence Forum magazine. \u201cThe initial cost becomes an issue. You\u2019re talking about an economy of around $8 billion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n ADF further reported in July that between 1980 and 2026, 34 countries procured 1,959 drones, according to 234 purchase records compiled by defence website Military Africa. More than half \u2013 1,054 of the 1,959 \u2013 were acquired between 2020 and 2026. Today, nine African countries are manufacturing drones domestically, with South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria and Ethiopia leading the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Nigeria, Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde took delivery of two surveillance aircraft about two months after a major terrorist attack on schools in May led to the abduction of 40 children and seven teachers. According to PUNCH Newspapers, the surveillance aircraft were valued at N7.76 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Terra also stressed the challenge of infrastructure sabotage in the region, noting that stakeholders confronting this have had to depend on imported security systems for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAcross Africa and the Global South, infrastructure sabotage, illegal mining, organised crime, and terrorism continue to threaten industries and livelihoods. For decades, governments and infrastructure operators have largely relied on imported security systems to manage these threats,\u201d a statement on the company\u2019s website read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The firm emphasised that the foreign systems are mostly designed for different operating conditions and are expensive to maintain, while dependence on them also introduces geopolitical risk and supply chain exposure and limits sovereignty over software and data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTerra Industries is building these sovereign security capabilities through a vertically integrated platform of systems designed for the Global South\u2019s terrain, scale, and operational realities,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The company also stated that its technology is already deployed to protect power plants, mines and other nationally critical assets valued at approximately $11 billion across multiple African countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This means investors and government stakeholders are racing to protect territory and multi-billion-dollar assets, thereby injecting enormous finance into defence technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Tectonic Defense, Terra\u2019s co-CEO Nwachuku noted that the firm was \u201con track to record over $100M in contract bookings and eight figures in revenues by year\u2019s end,\u201d and that it was in the final stages of negotiating major contracts \u201cwith several African governments and militaries to build and deploy the autonomous systems they need on the battlefield.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The bulk of that demand, he noted, was for the \u201cpersistent monitoring and autonomous surveillance of infrastructure and high-value sites with products like Archer and Kallon, but that could change quickly as we scale products like Kama,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur Pax-2 manufacturing facility, for instance, will be critical to fulfilling orders for unmanned and counter-unmanned aerial vehicles, which are in high demand across African militaries,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The comments speak to the demand for aerial surveillance systems in Africa, with firms like Terra positioning themselves for the deals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Terra\u2019s investment is led by 8VC, the venture capital firm founded by Palantir Technologies co-founder Joe Lonsdale, alongside Lux Capital and Valor Equity Partners, investors behind companies such as Anduril and SpaceX.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On its website, Terra listed other existing investors to include Silent Ventures, Nova Global, Belief Capital and SV Angel. It also mentioned Norleo Space Investments and Grant Gordon as new investors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The scale of investment behind Terra reflects growing interest in Africa\u2019s emerging defence technology sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe round closed in under two weeks, which is rare even by global standards,\u201d Tage Kene-Okafor, Terra Industries\u2019 director of communications, told Al Jazeera. \u201cBut what has been more exciting is our cap table, where we have the likes of 8VC, Lux Capital and Valor Equity Partners, investors that have backed companies shaping the future of defence and advanced manufacturing globally.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Terra\u2019s clients include oil, mining and power companies in Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya, though the majority of the revenue comes from governments, co-founder Nwachuku said, according to a publication by Semafor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beyond Terra\u2019s capacity to manufacture local defence technologies, experts worry that its funding is still largely dependent on foreign investments. This, they note, is a challenge for defence-tech innovators and the sovereignty of their countries, especially when a critical sector like security is concerned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Founder\/CEO of Symmex, an industrial-technological solutions provider and developer of Huraflow, Oluyide Awoyemi, said Terra\u2019s strides seemed like a quintessential success story, \u201cyet, beneath the celebration lies a troubling question: Why did a company protecting Nigerian critical infrastructure have to seek funding from American investors?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe easy answer, repeated across tech circles, is that Nigeria\u2019s venture capital ecosystem failed Terra by not providing capital for defence technology,\u201d Awoyemi said in an opinion published by Premium Times in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He lamented that despite protecting assets worth $11 billion locally, Terra still had to approach Silicon Valley for funding, describing the idea as \u201coutsourcing strategic autonomy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat they had to go to Silicon Valley for funding isn\u2019t a failure of Nigerian entrepreneurship or Nigerian venture capital. It\u2019s a failure of a defence budgeting paradigm so dysfunctional that it inadvertently outsources strategic autonomy, while claiming to protect national security,\u201d Awoyemi said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to him, until that changes, \u201cNigeria\u2019s brightest defence innovators will continue to board planes to San Francisco not because they want to, but because Nigeria\u2019s own defence budget leaves them with no other choice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are also questions of accountability and overall long-term sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An Al Jazeera publication stressed that while a country can build manufacturing capacity through investment, engineering talent and industrial policy, defence sovereignty requires institutions capable of managing procurement, ensuring accountability and sustaining strategic industries over the long term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Janice Greaver, the director at the Pan African Sustainable, Innovation and Development Associates (PASIDA), argued that local production alone cannot answer the questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSeventy percent local sourcing means little until we know who controls the intellectual property, who is employed and who is left out,\u201d she told Al Jazeera. \u201cAnd when private capital arms the state with no visible civil society oversight, we are simply trading one dependency (on foreign suppliers) for another (on unaccountable domestic capital).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She noted that genuine defence sovereignty will depend on what happens beyond the factory floor: how governments buy, regulate and oversee the technologies they increasingly seek to build themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIts manufacturing capacity is being built; sovereignty requires the accountability structures that do not yet exist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amid the concerns, stakeholders believe startups like Terra are bold examples that African innovators can drive ambitious \u2018Africa-for-Africa\u2019 economies and fill critical gaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the Nigerian firm also has competitors to contend with in the African drone market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At least 15 foreign firms, with many of them from the US, are in the drone market of South Africa alone, according to Markets and Markets, a research and intelligence firm. They include Exyn Tech Inc. from the US, CYIENT from India and Israel Aerospace Industries, headquartered in Israel, to mention a few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the market research firm, South Africa is increasing investment in unmanned aerial systems for defense and surveillance capabilities across the African continent. It added in its July publication that SA\u2019s military drones market is valued at $110 million in 2026 and is projected to expand to $244.7 million by 2031.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Africa turns inward to locally manufactured security technologies and with billions of dollars flowing into the defence sector, the bigger test will be whether governments can turn the private innovations and foreign capital into sustainable local capacity. With Terra\u2019s $52 million raise, the real measure of the success will be how well the funding drives impact in the African defence tech space.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Terra Industries, an African defence-tech firm, is expanding its manufacturing footprint as demand for homegrown security solutions grows across the continent. With $52 million in total seed funding, the Nigerian startup has announced a major scale-up and plans to set up a London office. Based in Abuja, Nigeria\u2019s Federal Capital Territory, the firm said on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":8343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"saved_in_kubio":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,30,27,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-governance","category-infrastructure","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openafricantribune.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openafricantribune.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openafricantribune.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openafricantribune.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openafricantribune.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8277"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/openafricantribune.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8374,"href":"https:\/\/openafricantribune.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8277\/revisions\/8374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openafricantribune.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openafricantribune.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openafricantribune.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openafricantribune.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The choice of Ghana and London<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Insecurity, sabotage and the African drone market<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/openafricantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/CNN-Terra-Industries-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nInvestments, partnerships<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Beyond manufacturing capacity<\/h3>\n\n\n\n