It looks like Nigeria’s tech scene just got a major touch of Hollywood glam. Jared Leto, the Oscar-winning actor known for playing the Joker in Suicide Squad and Morbius, has joined the list of investors pouring money into Terra, a fast-rising Nigerian drone startup.
In a move that’s turning heads from Lagos to Los Angeles, the 2-year-old Abuja-based company just secured a whopping $22 million (approx. ₦33 billion) in its latest funding round. This comes barely a month after they raised $11.8 million, bringing their total war chest to $34 million.
Leto isn’t the only big name putting his money where his mouth is. He invested alongside Lux Capital, a Silicon Valley giant and—closer to home—Olugbenga “GB” Agboola, the CEO of Flutterwave.
It’s a massive flex for the Nigerian tech ecosystem to see a Hollywood A-lister and a fintech heavy hitter backing the same hardware company in an industry regarded as the Fintech capital of the continent.
What makes this story even crazier? The brains behind the operation are barely out of university. Terra was co-founded by Nathan Nwachukwu (22) and Maxwell Maduka (24). Nathan revealed that they initially only planned to raise $5 million, but investors were so impressed that they ended up with $34 million.
So, what is Jared Leto actually buying into? Terra isn’t making music or movies; they are building serious hardware. We’re talking autonomous security drones, sentry towers, and unmanned vehicles designed to protect huge infrastructure projects across Africa.
The company is already valued at over $100 million and claims specifically that its tech secures assets worth about $11 billion. They are even expanding globally, with plans for a factory in Saudi Arabia to handle their booming demand.
For the entertainment and pop-culture crowd, this is proof that Nigerian talent is globally undeniable. Seeing an actor like Jared Leto—who is also a musician with the band Thirty Seconds to Mars—invest in a Nigerian defence company shows that the world is watching what our young creatives and innovators are building.
