These members of Generation Z have just raised $11.75 million to put Africa’s defense in the hands of Africans.

After five years building an education technology company, 22-year-old Nathan Nwachuku realized Africa was at a crossroads. The continent is experiencing rapid industrialization, he told TechCrunch. There is money, opportunities and a young, motivated population. He believed the continent would soon be on the “verge of an industrial revolution.”

“At the same time,” he said, he feels the continent is still struggling to address what constitutes one of its biggest Achilles heels. “Terrorism and insecurity.” Africa has more deaths linked to terrorism than any region in the world, and it is this problem that could slow – or even completely stop – the region’s growth, Nwachuku said.

He teamed up with a friend, Maxwell Maduka, 24, and launched Terra Industries, a defense company that designs autonomous infrastructure and systems to help governments and organizations monitor and respond to threats. The company announced Monday that it had emerged from stealth with an $11.75 million funding round led by Joe Lonsdale’s 8VC.

Other participants in the round include Valor Equity Partners, Lux Capital, SV Angel and Nova Global. The company had already raised an $800,000 pre-seed round, and Nwachuku said other people were very interested in the company after its appearance on CNN. African investors in the company include Tofino Capital, Kaleo Ventures and DFS Lab.

“The goal is to build Africa’s first defense infrastructure, build autonomous defense systems and other systems to protect our critical infrastructure and resources against armed attacks,” said Nwachuku, the company’s CEO. Maduka is the CTO of the company.

The team has extensive military experience: 40% of its engineers held the same role in the Nigerian army; Alex Moore of 8VC, which specializes in defense investments, is also a board member, and Nigerian Vice Air Marshal Ayo Jolasinmi serves as an advisor. Maduka also served as an engineer in the Nigerian Navy and founded a drone company at age 19.

The company, based in Nigeria’s capital Abuja, has taken a multi-domain approach to product development, considering ways to protect critical land, water and air infrastructure. For the aerial sector, the company produces long and short range drones. On the ground, it has surveillance towers and ground drones. The company is still working to develop maritime technologies to help protect infrastructure such as offshore platforms and subsea pipelines.

Terra powers its technology with its proprietary software, ArtemisOS, which collects, analyzes and synthesizes data in real time. Once threats are spotted, they alert response forces (such as security agencies) so they can intercept them. “We want to geolocate all of Africa’s critical infrastructure and resources,” Nwachuku said, adding that the problem is not lack of firepower (many African armies already have it).

Rather, it is a lack of sovereign intelligence, as much of the intelligence on which African countries depend comes from Western powers, China and Russia.

“We want to take the defense of our continent’s resources and infrastructure into the hands of Africa,” Nwachuku continued. “We are the first truly pan-African defense company. »

Terra recently won its first federal contract, although it said it could not provide further details. The company makes money when governments and commercial customers place orders for Terra systems and then pay annual fees for data processing and storage. Nwachuku said the company had generated over $2.5 million in trading revenue so far and was protecting assets valued at about $11 billion.

Commercial revenue comes from protecting private infrastructure, such as gold mines or power plants. Terra said it protected at least two hydroelectric plants and several small mines, with most of the company’s customer base coming from Nigeria.

The company hopes to use this new capital to help expand and build more defense factories across Africa. It also wants to further expand its software capabilities and grow its AI team. It will open software offices in San Francisco and London, but the company said manufacturing would remain in Africa, with more factories opening across the continent to boost job creation.

“It is clear that Africa today faces what I consider to be an epic struggle for its very survival,” Nwachuku said. “The only way for us to truly break free from the chains that have held us back for the last ten or twenty years is to ensure that the critical resources, the critical infrastructure of the continent, are fully protected. »