Founders Fund Invests in The Scientists Professional Network ResearchGate

The round is being led by Founders Fund partner Luke Nosek, co-founder of PayPal, with participation from Benchmark Capital, Accel Partners, Michael Birch (co-founder, Bebo), and David O. Sacks (founder/CEO, Yammer, Inc. and founder/chairman, Geni, Inc.). With Fund IV, Founders Fund’s largest fund to date, the firm is seeking to make investments with an emphasis on transformational technologies and companies, particularly in the fields of medicine and biotechnology.

“We are extremely pleased to have the support of prominent investors such as Luke Nosek and the rest of the Founders Fund team. Having been early investors in companies including Facebook and Palantir Technologies, it’s clear that Founders Fund is a firm that recognizes potential and can see how ResearchGate’s vision is being realized,” said Ijad Madisch, co-founder and CEO of ResearchGate. “With this round of financing, our main priority will be to pursue new innovations. We want to change the way scientific reputation is measured, calculated and built over time by providing our users with qualitative feedback, while enabling them to share their findings efficiently.”

Luke Nosek, co-founder and partner at Founders Fund, who will also serve as a board member of ResearchGate, said, “We have a genuine appreciation for the considerable success that the team at ResearchGate has demonstrated since the company was founded. We truly believe that the network has the potential to disrupt a much-outdated system, while leading the way in changing scientific discovery and the way research is disseminated.”

In September 2010 ResearchGate closed its Series A funding led by Benchmark Capital. The initial investment allowed ResearchGate to expand the core team in the company’s Berlin headquarters. Matt Cohler, general partner of Benchmark Capital and ResearchGate board member, and an early executive at Facebook and LinkedIn, commented, “We have continued to witness ResearchGate’s strength and leadership in

serving a previously untapped market. ResearchGate’s strong management team has continued to drive growth for the network and make moves toward changing the way we gain access to research findings.”


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Paul Jones

Editor of Business Matters, the UKs largest business magazine, and head of Capital Business Media's automotive division working for clients such as Aston Martin and Infiniti.
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https://bmmagazine.co.uk/

Editor of Business Matters, the UKs largest business magazine, and head of Capital Business Media's automotive division working for clients such as Aston Martin and Infiniti.