African defense technology Terra Industries, founded by two Gen Zers, raised an additional $22 million in one month.

Just a month after raising $11.75 million in a round led by Joe Lonsdale’s 8VC, African defense technology company Terra Industries announced it had raised a further $22 million in funding led by Lux Capital.

Nathan Nwachuku, 22, and Maxwell Maduka, 24, founded Terra Industries in 2024 to design infrastructure and autonomous systems to help African countries monitor and respond to threats.

Terrorism remains one of Africa’s biggest threats, but much of the security intelligence African countries rely on comes from Russia, China or the West. In January, CEO Nwachuku said his goal was to “build Africa’s first defense prime, autonomous defense system and other systems to protect critical infrastructure and resources from armed attacks.”

At that time, Terra received its first federal contract. The company has government and commercial customers, and Nwachuku said Terra has already generated more than $2.5 million in commercial revenue and is protecting about $11 billion worth of assets.

He said this extension round happened quickly because of “strong momentum.” Other investors in this round include 8VC, Nova Global, and Resiliience17 Capital, founded by Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga Agboola. Nwachuku said investors have seen “faster-than-expected traction” with deals and partnerships, which has created a sense of urgency to take the lead and increase commitment. The round was completed in just two weeks, bringing the company’s total funding to $34 million.

The extended hike isn’t all that surprising. Ultimately, the cost of building a defense industry is not cheap. By comparison, Anduril has raised over $2.5 billion in funding. ShieldAI has raised approximately $1 billion in capital. Drone maker Skydio raised about $740 million, and Saronic, a maker of autonomous naval ships, raised about $830 million.

Nwachuku said that in January the company began expanding into other African countries yet to be announced (Terra is headquartered in Nigeria) and secured more government and commercial contracts, including AIC Steel, with more expected to be revealed this year.

The partnership with AIC Steel will allow Terra to establish a joint manufacturing facility in Saudi Arabia focused on building surveillance infrastructure and security systems. “This is our first large-scale manufacturing expansion outside of Africa,” he said.

“It is a priority to work with countries where terrorism and infrastructure security are key national concerns,” Nwachuku added, referring specifically to countries in sub-Saharan Africa and the Sahel region. He said many of these companies have not only lost billions of dollars in infrastructure over the past few decades, but also thousands of lives.

“We are focused on targeting major economies where the need for infrastructure security is urgent and where our solutions can have a meaningful impact. This is how we think about scaling.”