US tech billionaire Joe Lonsdale invests $11.8m in Nigerian drone firm to tackle Africa’s insecurity

African defence technology startup Terra Industries has raised fresh investment in a funding round announced on Monday, January 12, 2026. The round was led by 8VC, a venture capital firm founded by Palantir co founder Joe Lonsdale. As part of the deal, Alex Moore, a defence focused partner at 8VC and a non executive director at Palantir, joined Terra’s board last year.

Founded in 2024 by Nathan Nwachuku and Maxwell Maduka, aged 22 and 24, Terra Industries is headquartered in Abuja and focuses on designing and manufacturing advanced security hardware. The company builds long and mid range drones, autonomous sentry towers, and uncrewed ground vehicles tailored to meet Africa’s growing security needs.

Terra currently provides protection for infrastructure assets across Africa valued at about 11 billion dollars. These include hydropower facilities in Nigeria and gold and lithium mining operations in Ghana. The company’s solutions are becoming increasingly important as West Africa faces rising security threats from extremist groups such as Islamic State and al Qaeda. In response to the worsening situation, the Economic Community of West African States has declared a regional state of emergency.

According to Terra, the new funding will be used to expand its manufacturing capacity and scale security and counter terrorism operations across borders. The round attracted a strong lineup of global investors, including Valor Equity Partners, Lux Capital, SV Angel, Leblon Capital, Silent Ventures LLC, Nova Global, and prominent angel investors like Meyer Malka of Ribbit Capital.

A key part of Terra’s identity is its focus on homegrown innovation. Most of its engineering team is based in Africa, and all of its systems are designed, built, and produced on the continent. This approach positions Terra Industries at the crossroads of African technological talent and the urgent security challenges facing the region, highlighting a growing role for locally built solutions in global defence technology.

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