About Tern
Tern is a venture capital firm founded in 2004. It is primarily based out of London, United Kingdom. As of Feb 2024, Tern has invested in 7 companies. It primarily invests in Series A round in United States based startups. Its investments are spread across a wide range of sectors from Enterprise Applications to High Tech and HealthTech. Most recently it participated in the $***** Series A round of Device Authority Overall, Tern portfolio has seen 1 acquisition, namely Seal Software. A lot of funds co-invest with Tern, with names like Midlands Engine Investment Fund sharing a substantial percentage of its portfolio. Tern has team of 2 people including 1 partners.Key Metrics
Team Members
Portfolio Count
Portfolio Sectors
Portfolio Locations
Rounds of Entry
Seed & Series A
Portfolio Acquisitions
Tern's List of Top Investments
Tern has a portfolio of 7 companies. Their most notable investments are in Konektio and DiffusionData.Their portfolio spans across United States and United Kingdom. They have invested in Enterprise Applications, High Tech, HealthTech and 2 other sectors, across stages such as Seed, Series A stages. Here is the list of top investments by Tern:Provider of AI-based platform for surgical simulation using VR and haptics. It claims that the proprietary haptics system allows sensing resistance, texture, substance, and pressure, enabling professionals to practice and refine their surgical skills. Its platform syncs with a stylus connected to a standard-issue mechanical arm. Its stylus features two buttons, one to inject the virtual drug and the other to withdraw the needle. It knows the ideal injection pattern for the drug and gives the surgeon a score based on how accurately they have administered it. It claims that the simulations are hardware agnostic and thereby compatible with multiple headsets such as HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Microsoft Hololens.
Key facts about Fundamental Surgery
- Founded Year: 2012
- Location: Boston (United States)
- Annual Revenue: £1M - £10M as on Dec 31, 2024
- Valuation: $*****
- Stage: Series B
- Total Funding till date: $39.6M
- Employee Count: 77 as on Dec 31, 2024
- Investors: Mayo Clinic Business Accelerator, EQT and 13 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series B, Oct 23, 2024, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
Seal Software, the leading provider of contract discovery, extraction and analytics solutions, which enables companies to manage their contract portfolio by understanding exactly where their contracts are when needed and, more importantly, what is buried within them, in order to maximize revenue opportunities, mitigate risk and reduce expenses. It automatically locates unstructured contract data wherever it resides in an organization. Claims to rapidly process thousands of contracts, that is truly customizable, leveraging a unique blend of standard industry technology, including ML and NLP, and proprietary patented technology. Organizations can quickly and effectively populate and update corporate contract repositories, seamlessly integrating with leading customer relationship management (CRM), contract lifecycle management (CLM), and enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions out-of-the-box.
Key facts about Seal Software
- Founded Year: 2010
- Location: San Francisco (United States)
- Last Known Valuation: $*****
- Stage: Acquired
- Total Funding till date: $50.6M
- Employee Count: 8,453 as on May 31, 2026
- Investors: Toba Capital, Zeev Ventures and 5 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series B, Mar 28, 2019, $*****
- Highlight: Acquired
Developer of AI-powered conversational data intelligence platform for healthcare marketing. The platform delivers structured intelligence from unstructured data using natural language interface. It employs AI, ML, and NLP with domain knowledge to decode text-based data input. The platform offers message alignment, persona development, and audience intelligence.
Key facts about Talking Medicines
- Founded Year: 2013
- Location: Glasgow (United Kingdom)
- Stage: Seed
- Total Funding till date: $5.37M
- Employee Count: 31 as on May 31, 2026
- Investors: Scottish Enterprise, Shelford Capital and 4 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Seed, Feb 01, 2022, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
Provider of automated identity lifecycle management for unmanaged IoT/OT devices. The company's platform delivers compliance, visibility, and economies of scale for manufacturers and operators. It offers solutions for PKI automation, access control, and policy-driven encryption. The platform secures connected products and ecosystems across various sectors.
Key facts about Device Authority
- Founded Year: 2013
- Location: Reading (United Kingdom)
- Valuation: $*****
- Stage: Series A
- Total Funding till date: $25.3M
- Employee Count: 31 as on May 31, 2026
- Investors: Alsop Louie Partners, Ten Eleven Ventures and 28 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series A, Feb 23, 2024, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
Platform offering streaming data analytics solution. It is a cloud based platform that consumes data from any source, hyper personalizes the data, and also helps in the distribution of that data. It enables users to configure, manage, and report on data, connections, and more. It caters its solution to industries such as finance, gaming, transportation, technology, and more.
Key facts about DiffusionData
- Founded Year: 2006
- Location: Los Gatos (United States)
- Stage: Series B
- Total Funding till date: $33.8M
- Employee Count: 36 as on May 31, 2026
- Investors: Guinness Global Investors, Stephens and 6 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series B, Mar 06, 2023, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
Tern's Year-on-Year Investment Trends
Tern has invested in 9 companies over the last 12 years, with an average of 1 new investment annually in the last 10 years. Its most recent first time investment was in Konektio and most recent follow-on round was in Device Authority.Year | No. of Investments | ||
|---|---|---|---|
1st Round | Follow-on | Total | |
2026 (YTD) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2025 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2024 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
2023 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
2022 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
2021 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
2020 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
2019 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
2018 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
2017 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Tern's Investments by Stage
Tern has made 4 investments in Seed stage with an average round size of $1.43M and 2 investments in Series A stage with an average round size of $1.57M.Stage of entry | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Seed | 4 |
Series A | 2 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
Tern's Investments by Sector
Tern has a diverse portfolio, with companies operating in the Enterprise Applications, HealthTech, High Tech, Industrial Goods and Manufacturing and AR VR - Industry Applications. Notably, it has invested in 5 Enterprise (B2B) companies, 5 Software companies, 5 Tech companies and at least 3 companies focusing on Saas.Sector | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Enterprise Applications | 4 |
HealthTech | 2 |
High Tech | 2 |
Industrial Goods and Manufacturing | 2 |
AR VR - Industry Applications | 1 |
Others | 2 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
Tern's Investments by Geography
Tern has made most investments in United States (4), followed by United Kingdom where it has made 3 investments.Country | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
United States | 4 |
United Kingdom | 3 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
Tern's recent investments
Tern has not made any investment in 2026 so far.Here are the most recent investments by Tern:
Date | Company | Location | Round Details | Round Amount | Co-Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Feb 07, 2024 | United Kingdom | Series A | 6592 | ||
Apr 25, 2023 | United Kingdom | Seed | 5032 | - | |
Aug 11, 2022 | United States | Series B | 6810 | [+2] | |
Feb 01, 2022 | United Kingdom | Seed | 7593 | [+2] | |
Dec 20, 2021 | United Kingdom | Seed | 9458 |
Acquired companies in Tern's Portfolio
1 company from Tern's portfolio has been acquired. The most recent acquisition was Seal Software in Feb 2020 by DocuSign for $*****.Here are Tern's portfolio companies that got acquired most recently:
Company | Acquisition Date | First Invested on | First Round of Investment | Round Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Feb 27, 2020 | Jul 29, 2017 | Series A | 5227 |
Team profile of Tern
Tern has a team of 2 members located in United States. Tern's team does not sit on the board of any company as of now.Co-investors of Tern
Over the past 12 years, 28 investors have co-invested in Tern's portfolio companies. This includes funds and angels.
- Invested before Tern: Founders Factory, Sallfort Privatbank and 4 others have invested in rounds before Tern. There is 1 company where Founders Factory has invested before Tern and 1 company where Sallfort Privatbank has invested before Tern.
- Top Co-investors of Tern: 2 investors entered a company along with Tern. These include investors like Midlands Engine Investment Fund (1 company).
- Invested after Tern: A total of 20 investors have invested in Tern's portfolio after their investments. Top Investors include Knights Templar Eye Foundation (1 company), Downing (1 company) and EPIC (1 company).
Recent News related to Tern
•
Tern Plc Posts Annual Results And Calls General Meeting On 9 July 2026DirectorsTalk Interviews•Jun 23, 2026•Tern
•
Tern invests in Device Authority in convertible loan notesShareprices•May 23, 2026•Tern, Device Authority
•
Tern launches open offer to help Device Authority fundraiseShareprices•Feb 13, 2026•Tern, Device Authority
•
Tern Plc Issued Talking Medicines Convertible Loan NotesAJ Bell•Dec 12, 2025•Tern, Talking Medicines
•
•
Tern appoints Rob Stevens as adviser on shareholder relationsDirectorsTalk Interviews•Sep 01, 2025•Tern
•
•
Tern FY 2024 Results: Core portfolio grows ARR, cuts costs by 30%
DirectorsTalk Interviews•Jun 05, 2025•Tern
•
Tern’s Bruce Leith appointed Executive Chairman of Purple Transform
DirectorsTalk Interviews•Apr 24, 2025•Tern
•

