Cliff Sharples.
Cliff Sharples.

Teneology, a Seattle-based acquisition fund led by former Cheezburger exec Cliff Sharples, has raised a $10 million round led by Tritium Partners of Austin, Texas.

Teneology was created one year ago by Sharples, a former HomeAway and Kinetx Living exec, with the goal of acquiring promising digital media businesses.

Ben Sternberg, co-founder and CFO of Teneology, told GeekWire today that the fresh funding will help his firm both support acquisitions it has already made and explore new opportunities.

Teneology is focused on buying existing Internet businesses that have the potential for great success, but for whatever reason, has yet to fully execute — particularly those that have been bootstrapped or lightly funded.

“It is very hard to maximize potential in both reach, monetization, and programming all concurrently,” Sternberg explained. “By combining these elements we can really create something that has reach, revenue capabilities, and technology infrastructure — all of which are critical to create modern digital media companies.”

tritium121Tritium had previously invested when Teneology launched last year.

“We were very happy to find them as our lead investor given that they have a tremendous wealth of experience executing Internet roll-ups, as well as a team that’s pretty savvy on financial strategic matters,” Sternberg said.

Sternberg wouldn’t reveal a total dollar amount for the fund, nor say how many companies have been acquired by Teneology. However, he did note that there are now 25 people working for startups in Teneology’s portfolio.

Sharples co-founded Garden.com in 1995 with his wife Lisa — who’s the co-CEO of Teneology — before taking the company public in 1999. Lisa Sharples later went on to run Seattle-based AllRecipes.com, departing the company in 2013 after it was sold to Meredith for $175 million.

Sharples launched the acquisition fund in 2013 while committing to a year-long trip with his wife and five kids, a voyage took them through Africa, Asia, Australia and South America. He wrote about the adventure, which ended this past September, at projectequator.com.

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