What DeSci Labs does

DeSci Labs AG is a Switzerland-headquartered (Wollerau) open-science infrastructure company founded in July 2021 by Prof. Dr. Philipp Koellinger (CEO), Sina Iman (CTO), and Dr. Christopher Hill (Strategic Advisor). The company builds AI- and Web3-powered tools for the scientific research lifecycle, anchored on the CODEX Protocol — a peer-to-peer decentralized network that replaces static PDFs with integrated research objects combining manuscripts, data, and code. Its product portfolio comprises DeSci Publish (a free decentralized preprint network with DOI and ORCID integration), SciWeave (an AI research assistant delivering citation-grounded answers from peer-reviewed literature), DeSci Reviewer Finder (AI-powered conflict-free peer reviewer matching for journal editors and funding agencies), and the underlying DeSci Nodes platform. Differentiated technical components include the dPID persistent identifier system, AI-driven novelty scoring, blockchain-verified attestations, and validated open-science badges.

The business operates on a self-serve, product-led growth model with entirely free access for researchers, students, and journal editors — no fees, paywalls, or publication charges are disclosed. GTM relies on earned media (Nature, Times Higher Education, Technology Networks), developer documentation, Discord community engagement, and organic social channels rather than a sales team. Customer segments span academic researchers and scientists (primary), students and science professionals, and journal editors and funding agencies. The company raised a $6.5M seed round in 2024 (total funding exceeding €7M) and has issued 20,000+ persistent identifiers across 20+ terabytes of indexed research content, with partnerships spanning OpenAlex, Crossref, IPFS, ORCID, and the Go-FAIR Foundation.

Name

DeSci Labs

Legal name

DeSci Labs AG

Website

https://desci.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

DeSci Labs AG builds AI- and Web3-powered open-science publishing infrastructure, offering free decentralized preprint publishing (DeSci Publish), a citation-grounded AI research assistant (SciWeave), and AI peer-reviewer matching for journal editors and funding agencies, all built on its CODEX Protocol.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Scientific Publishing Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (513210), Software Publishers (5132)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Books: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2731)

akta.pro primary industry

OER Authoring, Remixing & Publishing Tools/Platforms (EDAGAJAM)

akta.pro secondary industries

OER Quality Review, Alignment & Certification (rubrics/standards) (EDAGAJAN), Scientific & Laboratory Reference (Chemistry, Biology, Physics; Methods & Protocols) (EDAGAGAG), Collaborative Review, SME Feedback & Version Control for eLearning (EDAFAHAK), Standards, Packaging & Interoperability Tools (SCORM/xAPI/cmi5/LTI) (EDAFAHAH)

Keywords

• Open science publishing
• Scientific preprint network
• AI research assistant
• Peer reviewer matching
• Persistent identifiers

Headquarters

HQ city

Wollerau

HQ country

Switzerland

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Free Platform Access: Current platform operates on free model with no fees or paywalls for researchers to share manuscripts, data, and code. Revenue model not explicitly disclosed in available sources.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

DeSci Labs builds a suite of open science software tools powered by AI and Web3: SciWeave, an AI research assistant that answers science questions grounded in peer-reviewed literature with citations; DeSci Publish, an all-in-one decentralized preprint network for sharing, versioning, and curating manuscripts, data, and code with DOI issuance and ORCID credit; and DeSci Reviewer Finder, an AI-powered peer reviewer matching tool for journal editors and funding agencies. All products are built on the CODEX Protocol, an open peer-to-peer network that replaces static PDFs with dynamic, interoperable research environments.

Product overview

DeSci Labs builds a suite of open science tools powered by AI and Web3 technology. The product portfolio centers on three core offerings: SciWeave (AI research assistant for literature Q&A), DeSci Publish (decentralized preprint network with DOI/ORCID support), and DeSci Reviewer Finder (AI-powered peer reviewer matching). All products are built on the CODEX Protocol, a peer-to-peer network replacing static PDFs with dynamic research environments. DeSci Nodes serves as the underlying platform for creating and publishing versioned research objects containing manuscripts, data, and code. Early adopters receive 100GB of free storage.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• SciWeave: AI Research Assistant that delivers fast, reliable answers to science or health-related questions grounded in peer-reviewed research. Sources responses from academic literature with citations and related papers.
• DeSci Publish
• DeSci Reviewer Finder
• DeSci Codex

Products and services

• SciWeave

Quantifiable outcome

• Citations increase by up to 100% when data is published alongside publications
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

AI capability6 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.

• OpenAlexcoreTechnology or IntegrationIntegration partnership providing access to 50M+ open-access articles and field-specific novelty scores. OpenAlex data enables comprehensive research indexing and novelty scoring across scientific fields.
• Go-FAIR FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStrategic partnership supporting FAIR data principles integration into the Nodes platform. DeSci Labs works with Go-FAIR to ensure research objects meet Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable standards.
• CrossrefsupportingTechnology or IntegrationIntegration for DOI registration and metadata services enabling persistent identification of research outputs.
• IPFS (InterPlanetary File System)coreTechnology or IntegrationDecentralized storage infrastructure powering the peer-to-peer network for research sharing. Core to CODEX Protocol's distributed architecture.
• ORCIDcoreTechnology or IntegrationIntegration enabling automatic attribution of published nodes to co-author ORCID profiles. Ensures researchers receive full credit for all research contributions.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Figshare: Repository platform for sharing research outputs including datasets, figures, and preprints with DOIs. Directly comparable to DeSci Publish's integrated manuscript/data/code publishing and persistent identifier model.
• Protocols.io: Platform for sharing and versioning research protocols and methods. Comparable to DeSci Publish's version-controlled research objects and openness focus, though more specialized to experimental methods.
• Zenodo (CERN): Open repository for research outputs (data, code, papers) hosted at CERN with DOI minting. Comparable to DeSci Publish's data/code publishing and DOI capabilities, serving the same open-science community.
• bioRxiv / medRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor): Dominant preprint servers for life sciences, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Direct competitor to DeSci Publish for manuscript pre-publication sharing, though without Web3/distributed storage or integrated AI tooling.
• ResearchGate: Social/research network for scientists to share papers, ask questions, and discover literature. Direct peer to DeSci Publish and SciWeave in the academic discovery and publishing space, though more closed in identity and content model.
• Dryad: Curated open-data publishing platform for research data underlying scientific publications. Comparable to DeSci Publish's data publishing and FAIR-aligned infrastructure, focused on data alongside papers.
• Consensus: AI-powered search engine that extracts answers directly from peer-reviewed studies. Overlaps with SciWeave in providing research-grounded answers to scientific questions for both researchers and the public.
• Elicit: AI research assistant that searches and summarizes peer-reviewed literature for scientists. Direct competitor to SciWeave in the AI-for-research-assistant category, with a similar value proposition for literature review.

Broad incumbents

• OpenAlex: Open catalog of the world's scholarly works providing metadata and citations. Functions as a content backbone for DeSci Labs; comparable as a foundational open-science infrastructure player though with a different product surface.
• ORCID: Standard persistent identifier for researchers used across publishing and grant workflows. DeSci Labs integrates with ORCID; ORCID represents the incumbent identity layer against which dPID positions, and could be a long-term partner or competitor for credit attribution.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks4 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/descilabs
• GitHubgithub.com/desci-labs
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@descilabs
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/desci-labs

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

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 DeSci Labs