Experiment

What Experiment does

Experiment (formerly Microryza) operates a web-based crowdfunding and grant platform purpose-built for scientific research, connecting academic researchers and independent scientists directly with public backers, foundations, and institutional funders. Founded in 2012 by Cindy Wu and Denny Luan at the University of Washington and now headquartered in New York, the platform enables researchers to create project campaigns, receive peer-scientist endorsements, raise funds under an all-or-nothing model, and document progress via a Lab Notes feature. Funded projects receive free Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for citation. The platform has facilitated over $12M in research grants across 1,400+ funded projects with a 48-49% success rate, supported by 56,000+ backers, 250+ institutions, and 25,000+ lab notes.

The core product suite consists of the campaign creation and funding workflow, a Project Dashboard for analytics and team management, Lab Notes for ongoing science communication, and a Grant Programs layer that hosts 92 grant programs from funders including the Bezos Earth Fund, Homeworld Collective, Wildlife Disease Association, California Institute for Biodiversity, and Dalio Philanthropies. The company is venture-backed by Y Combinator (Winter 2013), Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, Lux Capital, Two Sigma Ventures, Slow Ventures, Learn Capital, K5 Ventures, SV Angel, and others, with a disclosed $1.23M seed round in 2013 and a Marc Bell Ventures investment in 2014. The team is small (1-10 employees) and operates from Seattle and San Francisco.

Revenue is generated via an 8% platform fee plus 3-5% payment processing charges on successfully funded projects, supplemented by facilitation/commission revenue from institutional grant programs. Funds transferred to researchers are not subject to institutional overhead, positioning Experiment as a friction-reducing alternative to traditional grant pathways amid declining NIH and NSF funding. Distribution is self-serve and global across the US, Canada, UK, and Australia.

Name

Experiment

Legal name

Experiment Inc.

Website

http://www.experiment.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Experiment is a crowdfunding and grant platform for scientific research, connecting academic and independent scientists with public backers and institutional funders. It has facilitated over $12M for 1,400+ research projects via an 8% take-rate and 92 active grant programs.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Scientific Research Crowdfunding Platform

akta.pro primary industry

Research & Science Grantmaking Foundations (BPAGAKAI)

Keywords

• Research crowdfunding platform
• Scientific research funding
• Open science community
• Grant program facilitation
• Peer-reviewed research

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Platform Transaction Fees: 8% platform fee plus payment processing fees (roughly 3-5%) charged when projects meet their funding goals. All-or-nothing model means no fees charged if projects fail to reach goal.
2. Grant Program Facilitation: Experiment enables grant programs from organizations like Homeworld Collective, Wildlife Disease Association, Bezos Earth Fund, and others to fund projects through the platform

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Experiment operates a web-based crowdfunding platform purpose-built for scientific research, connecting researchers directly with public backers and institutional grant funders. Scientists create project campaigns, receive peer feedback from community reviewers, raise funds under an all-or-nothing model, and document progress through Lab Notes. The platform charges an 8% fee plus payment processing on successfully funded projects and additionally enables foundations and government agencies to deploy grant programs to researchers.

Product overview

Experiment is a unified crowdfunding platform for scientific research, operating as a single integrated product rather than a modular platform architecture. The core offering combines project-based crowdfunding with grant programs, enabling researchers to raise funds from public backers and institutional funders. Key product components include the crowdfunding platform itself, Lab Notes for ongoing project documentation, a Project Dashboard for analytics, a Researcher Guide for support, Collaborator Management for team access, and Free DOI Archival for citeable research outputs. The platform supports 92 grant programs with over $1.2 million in total grant funding, and has facilitated funding for over 1,400 projects with 56,000 backers and 250 institutions.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Experiment Crowdfunding Platform
• Experiment Grant Programs

Quantifiable outcome

• 48-49% project funding success rate
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Scale indicators12 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Emerging players

• ioby: Crowdfunding platform focused on environmental and community science projects. Comparable niche positioning around mission-driven science/civic research, but smaller scale and more regional (US) focus.
• Experiment Foundation: Nonprofit arm of Experiment enabling foundation and challenge grants on the platform. Comparable service offering (grant-program facilitation) but operates as a complement rather than competitor within the same ecosystem.

Others

• Wefunder: Equity crowdfunding platform under Reg CF. Adjacent in operating a regulated marketplace for alternative capital flows, although oriented toward startup equity rather than research grants.
• Substack: Subscription publishing platform enabling scientists to monetize newsletters. Adjacent in that researchers can build direct-funder relationships and communicate ongoing work — similar dynamic to Lab Notes and public engagement.

Direct peers

• DonorsChoose: Crowdfunding platform connecting public donors with classroom and education projects. Highly comparable model — direct-to-public project funding, transaction fees, and institutional backing — though oriented toward K-12/education rather than research.
• Indiegogo: General-purpose crowdfunding platform supporting science and tech campaigns. Comparable business model (all-or-nothing and keep-what-you-raise options, transaction fees) and overlapping target audience of creators and backers.
• Kickstarter: Largest rewards-based crowdfunding platform with a dedicated Science category. Competes directly with Experiment for science projects and backers, but lacks scientific-domain features like DOI archival, lab notes, and peer-scientist endorsement.
• OpenCollective: Transparent fundraising platform for open-source communities and research collectives. Comparable model of low-fee, transparent public funding with open tracking of how money is spent, aligned with Experiment's open-science values.

Broad incumbents

• Patreon: Subscription-based creator funding platform. Overlaps with Experiment's recurring-engagement model (backers following project updates via Lab Notes) and competes for the same pool of science-engaged backers.
• GoFundMe: Largest donation-based crowdfunding platform globally. While not specialized in research, it competes for researchers seeking public funding and has greater scale, brand recognition, and capital.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/lets_experiment
• Facebookfacebook.com/experimentcom
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/microryza

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 records

Investors14 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 Experiment