After five years of building an edtech company, Nathan Nwachuku, 22, realized that Africa was at a crossroads. The continent is undergoing rapid industrialization, he told TechCrunch. There is money, opportunity, and a young, driven population. He figured, soon enough, the continent was on the “edge of an industrial revolution.”
“At the same time,” he said, he felt the continent still struggled to address what was one of its biggest Achilles heels. “Terrorism and insecurity.” Africa has more terror-related deaths than any region in the world, and it is this problem that could slow down — or even stop completely — the growth of the region, Nwachuku said.
He teamed up with a friend, Maxwell Maduka, 24, and launched Terra Industries, 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 emerged from stealth with a $11.75 million round led by Joe Lonsdale’s 8VC.
Others in the round include Valor Equity Partners, Lux Capital, SV Angel, and Nova Global. The company previously raised an $800,000 pre-seed round, and Nwachuku said others took much interest in the company after it appeared on CNN. African investors in the company include Tofino Capital, Kaleo Ventures, and DFS Lab.
“The goal is to build Africa’s first defense prime, to build autonomous defense systems and other systems to protect our critical infrastructure and resources from armed attacks,” Nwachuku, the company’s CEO, said. Maduka serves as the company’s CTO.
The team is stacked with military experience: 40% of its engineers held the same role in the Nigerian military; 8VC’s Alex Moore, who specializes in defense investing, is also on the board, and Nigeria’s Vic …