Drones, Drama, and $100 Million: Meet the Nigerian Startup Everyone Can’t Stop Talking About.
Abuja just produced a $100M defense startup – and the founders are 22 and 24.
Forget apps and fintech. Two young Nigerians – (Nathan Nwachuku and Maxwell Maduka) skipped the software phase and went straight to building machines that make armies blink.
Their startup, Terrahaptix (formerly Terra Industries), closed a $22M seed extension in just two weeks. Total funding? $34M. Valuation? A cool $100M.
Meet the Prodigies Behind the Machines
Nathan Nwachuku (CEO) – At 15, an injury left him partially blind in one eye. By 18, he dropped out of a Canadian scholarship to launch Klas, an edtech platform. Now, he’s on a mission to make Africa a global drone hub.
Maxwell Maduka (CTO) – The “mad scientist.” Ex-lead drone engineer for the Nigerian Navy, his first company, Spatial Nova, was acquired at 21. Now he builds the machines that others only dream of.
Investors like Joe Lonsdale and firms such as Lux Capital didn’t just notice; they wrote the checks fast.
The Machines
These aren’t toys. This is the Arsenal of Abuja.
Archer VTOL: Vertical take-off, plane-like flight. Eyes on pipelines and gold mines for miles.
Duma UGV: Patrols and detects IEDs. Humans? Out of the danger zone.
Kallon Sentry: 40-foot solar tower spotting threats 20km away. Never sleeps, never eats, never asks for weekend allowance.
Why the World is Watching Abuja
For decades, Africa imported defense tech. Now, Terrahaptix flips the script: a 15,000-square-foot factory in Idu Industrial District produces 80% local materials (for half the cost of imported systems… Whew!).
They’ve reportedly signed contracts to protect billions in infrastructure and are already planning a “megafactory” abroad.
Abuja is not just producing policy anymore. It’s producing hardware.
The Mic Drop
Some say they’re too young. Others call it being ambitious.
One thing is clclea
Nigeria didn’t just launch another startup.
It built a factory!
And the question isn’t whether they can scale production.
It’s what they’ll build next.
