What protocols.io does

protocols.io is a secure, cloud-based collaborative platform for developing, sharing, and executing reproducible scientific methods and experimental protocols. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Berkeley, California, the company serves academic researchers, government agencies, and commercial life sciences organizations that need structured, version-controlled documentation of laboratory and computational workflows. Core platform capabilities include a Protocol Editor with built-in version history, concurrent multi-user editing, dynamic and runnable protocol execution (with embedded video, reagents, and detailed parameters), analytics, and a Developer Platform. The technology stack supports regulated research environments through HIPAA compliance and 21 CFR Part 11 audit trail and electronic signature capabilities available in the Premium Service for Industry tier, alongside enterprise security features including 2-factor authentication, encryption, and VPC infrastructure. Named adopters include the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Office of Regulatory Science (for the GenomeTrakr food safety community), UCSF researchers and the UCSF Library, and biotech firm Girihlet.

The company operates a multi-tier go-to-market combining a free individual tier (product-led growth) with paid premium subscriptions for individuals, plus dedicated Institutional Plans for universities, nonprofits, and government agencies/labs, and a Premium Service for Industry tier for biotechs and pharmaceutical companies. Pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed. A Startup Program extends reach into early-stage biotechs, and Protocol Entry Services offer professional protocol documentation as a professional services revenue stream. The company has built credibility through its ISSN-registered publication activity (ISSN 2473-1838) and support from prominent science philanthropies including the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Open Philanthropy Project, and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

Founded by Alexei Stoliartchouk (CTO), Irina Makkaveeva, and Leonid Teytelman (CEO), protocols.io has raised approximately $5.2M in cumulative disclosed funding across multiple rounds since 2012, with the largest single round (~$3.74M) closing in January 2020. The company is privately held with 11-50 employees and serves a global research community.

Name

protocols.io

Legal name

protocols.io

Website

https://protocols.io

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

protocols.io is a secure cloud platform for developing, sharing, and executing reproducible scientific protocols, serving academic researchers, government agencies, and biotech/pharmaceutical organizations through freemium, institutional, and regulated-industry subscription tiers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Scientific Protocol Management Software

NAICS

Computer Systems Design and Related Services (5415), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)

akta.pro primary industry

Electronic Data Capture (EDC) Platforms (HLACAOAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Industry/Vertical Cloud Platforms (e.g., Gov/Healthcare/Financial Cloud Regions) (HDABAAAL), Data Security & Privacy for Cloud (DLP, DSPM, Tokenization) (HDABAHAK), Data Privacy, Consent & Compliance Management (HDAEADAG)

Keywords

• Research protocol management
• Lab protocol sharing
• Scientific method reproducibility
• Protocol collaboration platform
• Experimental methods documentation

Headquarters

HQ city

Berkeley

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Subscription Plans - Individual: Tiered subscription model with free individual tier and premium paid plans. Premium individual plans offer enhanced features for private protocols and advanced capabilities.
2. Premium Service for Industry: Enterprise-grade subscription for biotechs and pharmaceutical companies with HIPAA compliance, 21 CFR Part 11 compliance, audit trail, approval/signature features, 2FA, encryption, and VPC infrastructure.
3. Institutional Plans: Subscription plans for universities, nonprofits, and government agencies with unlimited individuals and groups for private methods. Enables productivity, teaching facilitation, improved collaboration, and recordkeeping.
4. Protocol Entry Services: Service offering where protocols.io enters protocols on behalf of users who prefer delegated protocol documentation.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

protocols.io provides a cloud-based collaborative platform for creating, organizing, versioning, and sharing reproducible experimental research protocols and methods. The platform serves academic, government, and corporate research teams with secure workspaces featuring concurrent editing, protocol history, regulatory-grade security (HIPAA, 21 CFR Part 11), and AI-assisted workflow development. It is offered via a freemium individual tier, premium institutional plans for universities and government labs, and an enterprise Premium Service for Industry targeting biotech and pharmaceutical customers.

Product overview

protocols.io is a collaborative platform for creating and sharing experimental research workflows, methods, and protocols. The platform provides secure, centralized workspaces with advanced AI features that help academic, government, and corporate research teams manage evolving protocols, optimize workflow development, and improve reproducibility. The product architecture includes industry-specific offerings (protocols.io for Biotechs and Pharmaceuticals with HIPAA and 21 CFR Part 11 compliance), institutional plans for universities and government labs, and core platform features including the Protocol Editor for versionable collaborative editing, Protocol Execution Platform for runnable methods, Advanced AI capabilities, Analytics, and a Developer Platform. The service is offered at individual, institutional, and enterprise tiers with varying privacy controls and compliance features.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Premium Service for Industry (Biotechs and Pharmaceuticals) Enterprise-grade subscription tier providing private and secure collaboration for biotech and pharmaceutical research teams, with HIPAA compliance, audit trail, 21 CFR Part 11 approval and electronic signature capabilities, two-factor authentication, encryption, and VPC infrastructure.
• Institutional Plan (Universities, Nonprofits, and Government Agencies/Labs) Premium institutional subscription plan designed for universities, nonprofits, and government agencies/labs, providing unlimited individuals and groups for private methods. Increases productivity, facilitates teaching, improves collaboration and recordkeeping, and accelerates progress across research disciplines.
• Protocol Entry Services Service offering in which protocols.io enters and formats protocols on behalf of users, including multiple protocol entry methods, supporting researchers and organizations that prefer delegated protocol documentation rather than self-entry.

Quantifiable outcome

• User growth: At UCSF, the number of platform users doubled within seven months of institutional membership
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• Research Square: Research Square provides preprint and research workflow services to academic authors and institutions. It overlaps with protocols.io in scholarly communication and reproducibility tooling for academic researchers, though its primary focus is preprint posting rather than protocol management.
• eLabFTW: eLabFTW is an open-source electronic lab notebook popular in academic labs. It targets the same research-documentation and reproducibility use cases as protocols.io, with a self-hosted/free model that represents a partial competitive overlap, especially in cost-sensitive academic segments.

Broad incumbents

• Dotmatics: Dotmatics (now part of Revvity) is a scientific R&D platform offering ELN, data management, and informatics tools to pharma and biotech. It overlaps with protocols.io at the intersection of research methods documentation and biotech enterprise workflows, but at much broader scope.
• Benchling: Benchling is a broader life-sciences R&D cloud platform covering ELN, LIMS, and molecular biology. It is comparable as a vertical SaaS platform for biotech/pharma researchers, but spans far more workflows than protocols.io's protocol-management focus.

Others

• Addgene: Addgene is a major nonprofit plasmid repository serving life-sciences researchers with shared protocols tied to reagents. It is thematically adjacent to protocols.io's open-science mission and shares a similar biotech/academic audience, but operates as a reagent repository rather than a software platform.
• JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments): JoVE publishes peer-reviewed video protocols for scientific research, sharing protocols.io's reproducibility mission and life-sciences audience. It overlaps on the protocol-publication and reproducibility category but competes through video content rather than collaborative software.

Direct peers

• SciNote: SciNote is an ELN with protocol management and team collaboration features for academic and commercial research labs. It directly competes with protocols.io in the protocol-centric research documentation category, with overlapping institutional and enterprise customer targets.
• bio-protocol: bio-protocol is a peer-reviewed journal of life-sciences research protocols. It shares protocols.io's focus on publishing and standardizing reproducible methods but emphasizes peer review rather than collaborative editing and version control, making it an adjacent content/credibility peer.
• LabArchives: LabArchives is an electronic lab notebook (ELN) widely used by academic and enterprise research institutions. It competes directly with protocols.io for institutional research collaboration, methodology documentation, and reproducibility workflows, with similar institutional sales motion.

Regional players

• Geneious: Geneious is a bioinformatics platform offering sequence analysis and molecular biology tools. It overlaps with protocols.io's biotech customer base and research workflow positioning, though it focuses on computational biology rather than wet-lab protocol management.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/ProtocolsIO

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds7 records

Investors2 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about protocols.io