Nigerian cybersecurity startup Aeon has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding in a round led by Terra Industries. The round also attracted participation from Resilience17, the investment fund founded by Flutterwave co-founder and CEO Olugbenga Agboola, alongside DFS Labs, Kaleo Ventures, Seedstars and Ajim Capital.
Aeon is developing cybersecurity infrastructure for critical organisations across Africa and the Global South. Its product suite includes Aeon Edge, which secures networks and data at the perimeter, and Aeon Console, an AI-powered platform that monitors and helps address vulnerabilities across code, cloud infrastructure and endpoints.
The startup was founded by Samuel Ogbonyomi, Ben Eluan and Alex Idowu, who previously worked on cloud infrastructure products at PipeOps. Aeon has already begun pilots with financial services and cloud infrastructure companies in Nigeria, with the new funding expected to support product development, engineering growth and the expansion of these pilots into commercial deployments.
The investment follows a successful pilot between Terra Industries and Aeon earlier this year. The companies have since formed a commercial joint venture to pursue contracts across the Global South, combining Terra’s physical security capabilities with Aeon’s digital and cyber defence technology.
The funding comes as African organisations face growing cybersecurity risks. Aeon’s focus on locally developed cyber defence infrastructure reflects the increasing investment in technologies designed to protect the continent’s financial institutions, businesses and critical infrastructure.
