Oscar Award Winning Actor Jared Leto Supports Nigerian Drone Startup In $22M Deal

American Hollywood actor and Oscar Award Winner, Jared Leto, who is known for his role as the Joker in Suicide Squad, has joined the list of investors donating to Terra Industries, a 2-year-old Nigerian defence technology startup.

The Abuja-based company has secured a whopping $22 million (approx. ₦33 billion) in its latest funding round. This comes hardly a month after they raised $11.8 million, bringing their total funds to $34 million.

According to reports, Leto isn’t the only big name investing in Terra, as Lux Capital, a Silicon Valley giant, and
Olugbenga Agboola, the CEO of Flutterwave, have also done the same. It’s a huge encouragement to the Nigerian tech sector that a Hollywood superstar is backing the startup whose founders are barely out of university.

Terra was co-founded by Nathan Nwachukwu, 22 and Maxwell Maduka, 24. Nathan disclosed that they initially planned to raise only $5 million, but investors were so impressed that they ended up raising $34 million.

Terra is known for building autonomous security drones, sentry towers, and unmanned vehicles to protect major infrastructure projects across Africa, valued at over $100 million and securing assets worth $11 billion.

The new funding will be used to expand the company’s manufacturing capacity, accelerate deployments across Nigeria and other African countries, and strengthen its engineering, software, and business development teams.

The company is also planning to expand globally. Earlier this month, it announced a partnership with Saudi industrial giant AIC Steel to launch a manufacturing hub in Saudi Arabia.