Building Africa’s Cyber Defenses
A Nigerian cybersecurity startup, Aeon, has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding led by defense-tech company Terra Industries. The round also included participation from Resilience 17 (founded by Flutterwave co-founder Olugbenga Agboola), Kaleo, DFS Labs, Ajim Capital, and Seedstars.
Addressing a Growing Threat Landscape
The investment comes at a critical time as African businesses face increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks. INTERPOL estimates that such incidents cost the continent over $3 billion between 2019 and 2025, with AI-linked attacks accounting for 55% of reported crimes in 2026.
The Aeon Solution
Aeon’s platform provides a single view of an organization’s security posture by consolidating multiple tools into one interface. According to CEO Samuel Ogbonyomi, “Attackers move across all systems at once. We built Aeon so banks and critical infrastructure operators can see and fix their entire attack surface from one place.”
The platform offers:
- Aeon Console: A web-based dashboard for risk detection, vulnerability management, policy enforcement, and incident response
- Aeon Edge: Network sensors that provide visibility into connected devices and allow security teams to isolate threats
Strategic Partnership with Terra Industries
The funding includes a commercial joint venture between Aeon and Terra, leveraging each company’s strengths. While Terra handles physical security deployments (like towers and drones), Aeon provides the cybersecurity layer.
Nathan Nwachuku, CEO of Terra Industries, envisions Aeon becoming “the sovereign cyber defense layer for the Global South,” protecting critical infrastructure from digital threats.
The partnership allows both companies to pursue larger contracts together, with Terra handling the overall agreement while Aeon secures the digital assets as needed.