Acquisition
Nov 2012ResearchGate acquired Scholarz.net; financial terms were undisclosed. Scholarz.net's service was scheduled to discontinue on January 10, 2013, with users directed to export files and move to ResearchGate.
SourceCompany research
Public company, workplace, funding, and market signals
Updated Aug 2, 2026
Overview
ResearchGate GmbH is a Berlin-based, privately held professional network for researchers. Its mission is to connect the world of science and make research open to all; the platform lets scientists share, discover, discuss, and track research and build professional connections.
Primary product
ResearchGate: a free researcher social/professional network for sharing and discovering scientific publications, data, questions, projects, and profiles. Commercial products include scientific recruitment and publisher/brand marketing solutions such as Journal Home, sponsored content, native/display advertising, sponsored email, and event promotion.
Founded
2008
Headquarters
Berlin, Germany
Team size
200-300 (LinkedIn estimate); other directories report 251-500 or 349, so public estimates vary.
Work style
Remote
Industry
Software Development
Sub-industry
Professional social networking and scientific-research information services
Offices
Berlin, Germany
London, United Kingdom (listed in third-party company directories; current operating status not independently confirmed)
United States presence (company directory listing; specific current office not independently confirmed)
Business model
Freemium/free researcher network
B2B scientific recruitment and candidate-search services
B2B marketing and advertising for scientific brands
Publisher services and Journal Home partnerships
Funding
Stage
Late-stage/private, commonly classified as Series D; no publicly verified equity round after the 2017 Series D. A 2020 grant is listed by some databases.
Total raised
$87.6M
Latest round
Series D · Feb 2017
Latest amount
$52.6M
Dec 2020
Dec 2020
Feb 2017 · Wellcome Trust, Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, and Four Rivers Group were announced as investors; lead status not clearly specified
Jun 2013 · Bill Gates and Tenaya Capital
Feb 2012 · Founders Fund and Benchmark Capital are reported among the investors; lead status not confirmed
Sep 2010 · Accel Partners and Benchmark Capital are reported among the investors; lead status not confirmed
People & investors
Leadership
Co-Founder and CEO
Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer
Co-Founder and CIO
Mathias Astell
VP of Commercial Product
Mark Howard-Banks
VP of Product
Michael Häusler
Director of Engineering Architecture
Michael Reddington
Sales Director, ResearchGate Marketing Solutions
Paul McCloud
Head of Product Engineering
Work & culture
Mission-driven, collaborative, open, and empowered culture centered on accelerating science. The careers material emphasizes lifelong learning, mentorship, flexibility, professional growth, healthy work-life balance, and rapid engineering iteration.
Work style
Remote
Visa sponsorship
Limited
Compensation
No reliable public company-wide salary bands were found. External job-listing evidence indicates unspecified salary for at least one engineering role; LinkedIn directory ratings show relatively weak compensation sentiment (2.6/5), which is directional and not an audited measure.
Benefits
Remote-first/remote work with office access for workshops and collaboration
Professional development and mentorship support
Work-life-balance emphasis and flexible working arrangements
International relocation support
Visa support for relocation to Germany
Job-specific listings also indicate 30 days paid vacation, professional-development days, and choice of Mac or Linux laptop; these signals are from an external job listing rather than a current official benefits page
Product & market
Pricing
Researcher access is free. Commercial pricing for recruitment, advertising, sponsored content, and publisher products is quote-based/custom B2B; public rate cards were not found.
Differentiators
- —Large researcher network: 25+ million members across 193 countries, according to current company materials
- —Researcher-centric identity and profile graph spanning publications, projects, questions, citations, and collaboration
- —Commercial reach positioned directly inside researchers' workflow rather than only on a general advertising network
- —Publisher products such as Journal Home, automatic article sharing, journal profiles, engagement insights, and open-access agreement messaging
- —Free access for researchers supported by commercial marketing and recruitment services
Technology
Google Cloud Platform
Kubernetes
Docker
PostgreSQL
MongoDB
Redis
Java
JavaScript
PHP
Python
React
GraphQL
GitHub
Apache Airflow
HBase
Hive
Salesforce
Figma
Customers
QIAGEN
Sartorius
INVIVOGEN
Academic and scholarly publishers participating in Journal Home, including Cambridge University Press, Taylor & Francis, CSIRO Publishing, University of California Press, Pensoft Publishers, Science China Press, and Bioscientifica
Competitors
Academia.edu
Mendeley
Google Scholar
Semantic Scholar
ORCID
Scale & contact
Estimated revenue
EUR 1M-EUR 10M (third-party LinkedIn/company-directory estimate; LinkedIn also displays EUR5M). Not publicly audited.
Estimated monthly visits
73.7M
Signals & risks
Other
Dec 2020Some commercial databases list a 2020 grant/prize-money round, but the amount and underlying program were not reliably verifiable from primary sources.
SourceLatest news
STM Publishing News · Jul 2026
New partnership covering Science China Press journals, including Chinese-language titles, to increase international visibility and engagement across ResearchGate's 25M+ researcher community.
Research Information · Jul 2026
ResearchGate announced a new Journal Home partnership with Science China Press to increase international visibility and engagement for the publisher’s journals, including Chinese-language titles.
STM Publishing News · Jul 2026
Journal Home partnership covering seven endocrinology and biomedical journals, focused on readership, authorship, journal visibility, and researcher engagement.
Research Information · Jul 2026
ResearchGate expanded Journal Home with Bioscientifica to boost visibility, readership, and authorship across endocrinology and biomedical journals.
STM Publishing News · Apr 2026
Partnership covering the publisher's complete biology-journal portfolio, including open-access agreement messaging and researcher targeting.
Jobs and careers at ResearchGate
1 job at ResearchGate
Senior Frontend Engineer - React
Hybrid
Berlin
1mo ago
Hybrid
Full-time