Meet Avinav Nigam: Indian-origin entrepreneur transforming UAE healthcare hiring with AI

Dubai-based entrepreneur Avinav Nigam is scaling an AI-driven response to global healthcare workforce shortages through his venture TERN Group. Launched in 2023, TERN’s AI-powered global talent mobility platform — described by Nigam as "AI-Native" — secured $24 million in Series A funding in September 2025, reached $30 million in annualised revenue within 24 months, and has onboarded more than 650,000 healthcare professionals. The platform claims to reduce international hiring timelines from six–12 months to under 10 weeks while delivering 96%+ retention rates and an 88% conversion rate from resume to job offer.

"It wasn't cancer that beat her, it was a healthcare system that couldn't provide a patient with optimal post-treatment care."

That personal loss in 2022 — Nigam’s colleague and co‑founder of IMMO Capital, an Oxford‑educated lawyer who fought leukaemia and later died from a lung infection after being asked to vacate an NHS bed amid workforce shortages — prompted Nigam to target systemic staffing gaps. He views the global shortfall in healthcare workers, projected to reach 85 million by 2030 with 20 million in healthcare and social care, as a solvable problem through technology and ethical recruitment.

TERN’s platform focuses on the specialised nursing market. Its AI interviewing system evaluates 28 distinct attributes across 80 specialised nursing roles, remotely assessing clinical reasoning and candidate fit. The company reports delivering zero-cost training and placement for healthcare workers and tracking professional growth over time to support career planning and leadership development.

• Series A funding: $24 million (Sept 2025)
• Annualised revenue: $30 million within 24 months
• Professionals onboarded: 650,000+
• Retention rate for placed healthcare workers: 96%+
• Resume-to-offer conversion rate: 88%
• Typical international hiring timeline reduced to under 10 weeks

TERN has already attracted government‑level interest and competes with established analytics firms such as Palantir for workforce assessment contracts. In the UAE, the company is reported to be supporting nurse recruitment for Emirates Health Services (EHS), which operates 134 hospitals and health centres, according to a Gulf News report cited in the source article. The UAE healthcare sector itself is projected to spend more than $50 billion by 2029, highlighting significant market demand for rapid, scalable hiring solutions. Meanwhile, demand pressures in other markets remain acute — Germany, for example, requires some 40,000–50,000 nurses annually.

Nigam’s entrepreneurial track record includes co‑founding Cars24 in India, a digital used‑car marketplace now valued at $3.2 billion, and launching IMMO Capital in the UK, described as Europe’s first technology‑driven single‑family residential investment platform. An IIT Bombay alumnus, he positions TERN as his third major venture and as a response to what he calls “one of the world’s most pressing challenges — ensuring that healthcare systems are staffed not just quickly, but sustainably.”

Outlook

With validated metrics on retention and conversion, and growing public‑sector interest, TERN aims to scale its AI interviewing and talent‑mobility offering across markets facing acute staffing shortages. If the platform maintains its reported hiring speed and outcomes at scale, it could alter how health systems in the Gulf and beyond source and retain specialised nursing talent — shifting emphasis from short‑term fills to longer‑term career development and workforce stability.