Litmaps acquires ResearchRabbit, raises $1 million for AI

New Zealand-based Litmaps has acquired US research tool ResearchRabbit and completed the first close of a USD $1 million funding round to support its expansion in AI-driven research discovery.

The acquisition will see Litmaps' user base exceed 2 million, integrating ResearchRabbit's offering into its suite of visual citation mapping and AI-powered research tools.

Litmaps' annual recurring revenue doubled to USD $1 million prior to the raise, and the company reports growing adoption among universities and researchers seeking to increase the impact of their work.

The research discovery platform provides a visual, AI-backed approach to navigating academic literature. It aims to make previous research more accessible and highlight gaps in current knowledge.

"Most tools for navigating academic literature are outdated, clunky or simply not built for the way modern science works. Litmaps flips that by giving researchers a clear, visual way to understand what's already been done; and just as crucially, what hasn't. We're helping scientists move faster, avoid duplication and focus on conducting the research that actually helps them push humanity forward," said Axton Pitt, Co-founder of Litmaps.

"We've already seen Litmaps unlock insights in everything from climate research to cancer detection. With growing institutional interest, we're ready to bring this capability to every corner of academia and commercial R&D. The opportunity is enormous because better research tools mean faster innovation," Pitt noted the tool's applications across a breadth of scientific fields.

The company's acquisition of ResearchRabbit is intended to combine Litmaps' citation visualisation and AI technology with additional insights and user experience enhancements. The UK-based Scholarly Angels led the capital raise's first close, which converted from NZD to USD, equates to approximately USD $406,000.

"Litmaps is at the forefront of a number of companies that are disrupting traditional discovery with a combination of AI and citation network analysis. Their successful B2C model combined with the acquisition of Research Rabbit positions them for rapid expansion and significant impact. We look forward to supporting their growth," Andrew Preston, Lead Investor at Scholarly Angels and Founder of Publons, commented.

Litmaps addresses researchers' key questions, such as identifying contributors in a field, uncovering emerging themes, and locating gaps in research. Unlike traditional research tools, it features dynamic, AI-assisted visualisations and leverages open metadata from journals such as Nature, The Lancet, PubMed, and repositories including arXiv.org.

The browser-based software is reported to streamline the discovery process for engineers, scientists, and academics by using interactive citation maps and search tools to visually reflect their knowledge base without relying on unverified AI-generated content.

Litmaps is currently used at several prominent academic institutions, including Harvard, Stanford, Imperial College London, and the University of Cambridge, as well as in industry research environments. Among its user base is Dr. Muñoz, an Orthopaedic Trauma Surgeon with 35 years of experience, who uses Litmaps for pre-surgical research. He said the platform serves as "a second opinion before they step into the operating room." Dr Muñoz added that his use of Litmaps is "often theoretical, [but] sometimes it has clinical application," particularly when reviewing developments in complex clinical cases.

The company reports significant global adoption, with users in the US, India, Indonesia, and China, attributed to user-led product growth and a focus on trust and transparency in research outputs.

"We've built a product scientists actually want to use. It's fun, intuitive and most importantly - trusted," said Pitt. "When you're making decisions that affect your whole career or large investments in R&D, you need confidence. Litmaps gives users that confidence because its outputs are verified. It is not a black box and you can see this evidence visually."

"Science deserves better software, and we're just getting started,"  Pitt stated.