Terra Industries has become one of the most talked about deep tech companies to come out of Nigeria, and its trajectory over the past year reads like something out of a defense industry playbook rather than a typical African startup story. Founded in 2024 by two young Nigerians, twenty three year old Maxwell Maduka and twenty two year old Nathan Nwachuku, the Abuja based company launched what it calls the largest drone factory in Africa in February 2025, a fifteen thousand square foot facility on the outskirts of the capital.

That factory alone is capable of building 30,000 drones a year, including long range surveillance drones, quadcopters for first response and data collection, and small self driving vehicles for ground surveillance and transport. But Terra is no longer content with just Nigeria. The company already exports its drones to eight African countries and Canada, protecting an estimated 11 billion dollars worth of assets according to Nwachuku, spanning power plants, lithium mines, gold mines and oil refineries.

Commercial credibility has followed. In May, Terra won a 1.2 million dollar contract with private security firm NetHawk Solutions to deploy AI powered drones and surveillance towers at two hydroelectric power plants in Nigeria, beating out a rival bid from an Israeli consortium in the process. As part of the deal, Terra will supply a dozen drones and more than 35 towers to boost surveillance at plants Nwachuku says have been used as hideouts by bandits and even some terrorists.

The momentum has attracted serious capital too. Terra raised 11.75 million dollars in January 2026 in a round led by American venture firm 8VC, followed by an additional 22 million dollars in February, bringing its total funding to roughly 34 million dollars, with backers including Lux Capital and Valor Equity Partners. That war chest is now funding an even bigger bet beyond Nigeria's borders. The company is currently constructing a 34,000 square foot factory in Accra, Ghana, named Pax 2, which will more than double the footprint of the Abuja plant and is expected to become the largest drone manufacturing facility on the continent, with annual output projected to reach 50,000 units by 2028.

Terra has also deepened its ties with the Nigerian state, signing a joint venture agreement with the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria to jointly research and develop drones, robotics and cybersecurity systems, part of a broader continental shift toward local defense manufacturing after decades of importing hardware from China, Pakistan and Turkey. For a company that Nwachuku says has scaled with very little resources, Terra Industries is quickly proving that Nigerian hardware innovation can compete on a global stage.