Teren raises $4M to combat climate change

Teren Swoop rainbow colored on dark blue background

Teren, formerly SolSpec, announced today $4 million in seed funding, led by Allos Ventures.

The AI machine learning software and content company — focused on delivering rapid analysis of complex remotely sensed geospatial data — also formally announced its rebrand to Teren. The change reflects the company’s focus on analyzing how landscapes, environmental threats and asset conditions change over time through actionable 4D insights.

The funding will allow Teren to expand its workforce by 40% to address the fast-growing remote-sensing market estimated to exceed $13 billion by 2027.

Demand for Teren’s proprietary analytics has traditionally been strong within the oil and gas industry, which grapples with geological threats such as landslides that can damage pipelines and present environmental risks. The company is now set to develop solutions that will enable the insurance, solar, environmental and transportation industries to address real climate risk issues affecting their assets. Teren has developed pre-construction surveys and analytics for solar installations and pre-burn and post-burn analytics to improve wildfire mitigation and response.

Using its proprietary cloud technologies and machine learning tools, Teren makes massive LiDAR and other Earth observation datasets usable and actionable. The company can quickly identify, prioritize and monitor potential environmental threats, processing data 60 times faster and at a fraction of the cost of other solutions.

“Teren is creating turnkey solutions that reinvent how Earth observation data has conventionally been used,” said Toby Kraft, Teren’s CEO and co-founder. “Our customers have long been plagued by the need to identify the source of their data — be it satellite, drone or airborne — as well as the sensor type and then hire specialists to analyze the data. We remove all of the inputs and focus on the business decisions our customers need to make. It’s a whole new way for our customers to assess all the external forces threatening their physical assets.”

Teren’s Earth observation data and insights are expanding to deliver more change-over-time analytics at scale, furthering its ability to help companies address growing areas of concern such as climate risk and resiliency. This was an important factor in attracting ESG-focused funders such as Allos Ventures, which led the seed round with its $2.5 million investment, as well as Ascent Energy Ventures.

“Teren is leading the way in geospatial software innovations,” said Don Aquilano, co-founder and managing partner at Allos Ventures. “We believe that this new standard set by Teren will propel the industry forward while continuing to offer companies valuable data to shift their relationship with the environment and climate risk in a positive direction.”