CiteAb Ltd.
CiteAb Ltd. operates a citation-ranked life science reagent database covering 18 million reagents from 715 suppliers across 40 million publications, serving academic researchers (free access), pharmaceutical and biotech companies (data licensing), and reagent suppliers (market data).
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2012
- HeadquartersBath, United Kingdom
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What CiteAb Ltd. does
CiteAb Ltd. is a Bath, United Kingdom-based life science data company that operates a citation-ranked database of research reagents used in scientific experiments. Founded in 2012 by Dr. Andrew Chalmers as a spin-out from the University of Bath, the company has built a database covering more than 18 million reagents across 715 suppliers, with 13,397,297 citations drawn from 40 million peer-reviewed publications and over 1.3 million cropped experimental images. The platform serves three primary customer groups: academic and research institution scientists (free access), pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies (paid data licensing), and life science reagent suppliers (market data services and search engine listings), with adoption cited at thousands of academic institutions and all Top 20 pharmaceutical companies.
The company's core product, the CiteAb Explore Platform, combines a reagent search engine ranking products by citation count with an image search engine and a Citation Widget for supplier websites. The underlying technology combines proprietary AI-driven text mining with expert human review to extract structured reagent usage data — including applications, species reactivity, and validation evidence — from free-text and tables within scientific publications. CiteAb has also launched a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server enabling AI applications such as Claude and ChatGPT to access the database in real time for citation-backed reagent selection, with third-party validation estimating a 45% reduction in reagent shortlisting time in a Top 5 pharma evaluation.
CiteAb's revenue model rests on three monetization streams: paid commercial subscriptions to the Explore Platform (launched 2026-02-09 with individual, lab group, and enterprise tiers), data licensing to pharma, biotech, and investment/advisory firms for the full 18M-reagent database, and supplier data services (citation provision, market data, and search engine listings for reagent vendors). Academic and non-profit researchers retain free access, positioning the platform for organic adoption at thousands of institutions while the company monetizes enterprise and supplier-side use cases. The company has remained privately held and bootstrapped, with no disclosed venture capital or private equity funding rounds, and was awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise (Innovation) in 2022.
CiteAb Ltd. firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- CiteAb Ltd.
- Legal name
- CiteAb Limited
- Website
- https://citeab.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2012
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- CiteAb Ltd. operates a citation-ranked life science reagent database covering 18 million reagents from 715 suppliers across 40 million publications, serving academic researchers (free access), pharmaceutical and biotech companies (data licensing), and reagent suppliers (market data).
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
CiteAb Ltd. industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Life Science Research Database and Data Analytics
- NAICS
- Web Search Portals, Libraries, Archives, and Other Information Services (519), Scientific Research and Development Services (5417), Directory and Mailing List Publishers (51314)
- SIC
- Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Scientific & Laboratory Reference (Chemistry, Biology, Physics; Methods & Protocols) (EDAGAGAG)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Reagents, Chemicals & Assay Kits (Buffers, Antibodies, ELISA, Enzymes) (HLAGAIAI)
Keywords
Where CiteAb Ltd. is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Bath
- HQ country
- United Kingdom
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices1 record
Markets served
CiteAb Ltd. business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Subscription Revenue: Commercial/industry users require paid subscriptions to access CiteAb Explore Platform tools. Subscription tiers include individual, lab group, and enterprise accounts. Academic users receive free access.
- Data Licensing: License CiteAb's comprehensive reagent database (18 million reagents, 650 suppliers, 40 million publications) for internal use to pharma & biotech companies, investors, and advisory firms. Enables integration into internal AI tools and workflows.
- Supplier Data Services: Market data services for reagent suppliers including citation provision, image provision, and life science market data. Also includes search engine listing and Citation Widget for supplier webpages.
- Publisher Partnerships: Partner with scientific publishers to maximize exposure and revenue from publications through data integration and citation tracking services.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | Individual Account - For individual commercial researchers |
| Subscription | Annual | Lab Group Account - For research teams with shared data features |
| Subscription | Annual | Enterprise Account - For large organizations requiring complete database access |
| Freemium | Annual | Academic Access - Free access for academic and non-profit researchers |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels7 records
CiteAb Ltd. product offering
Product offeringCore offering
CiteAb operates the CiteAb Explore Platform, a citation-ranked search engine for life science reagents (antibodies, biochemicals, cell lines, kits, instruments, nucleotides, proteins) and an Image Search Engine providing access to cropped experimental images from peer-reviewed publications. The company licenses its proprietary reagent database of 18 million reagents across 650 suppliers—indexed against 40 million publications and 13+ million citations—to pharma, biotech, investors, and scientific publishers, and offers market data services to reagent suppliers.
Product overview
CiteAb is a life science database company offering the CiteAb Explore Platform as its core product—a unified research platform combining a Reagent Search Engine and Image Search Engine. The Reagent Search Engine covers antibodies, biochemicals, cell lines, kits & assays, instruments, nucleotides, and proteins, with results ranked by citations from 40+ million publications. The Image Search Engine provides access to over 1.3 million experimental images linked to publications and reagents. CiteAb licenses its database (18 million reagents, 650 suppliers) to pharma/biotech companies and provides market data services to reagent suppliers. Additional offerings include the CiteAb MCP for AI integration, Citation Widget for supplier websites, research tools (antibody dilution calculator, molarity calculator), the Custom Suppliers Directory, and the CiteAb Awards program.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- CiteAb Explore Platform Unified research platform combining the Reagent Search Engine and Image Search Engine to help academic and commercial researchers find validated antibodies and life science reagents, covering 15+ million reagents with citation data from 40+ million publications.
- Reagent Search Engine Citation-ranked search engine for antibodies, biochemicals, cell lines, kits & assays, instruments, nucleotides, and proteins, with results ranked by citations from peer-reviewed publications to identify the most validated products.
- Image Search Engine Search engine providing access to over 1.3 million cropped experimental images linked to publications and the reagents used, supporting experimental planning and reagent validation.
- Data Licensing for Pharma and Biotech Private licensing of CiteAb's comprehensive reagent database (18 million reagents, 650 suppliers, 40 million publications) for internal use by pharma and biotech companies, enabling integration into internal workflows and AI tools for de-risked reagent selection.
- Life Science Market Data Services Quantitative market data services providing insights into competitive life science markets for business development, product management, and marketing strategy at reagent suppliers, including supplier share data and citation trends.
- CiteAb Awards Annual industry awards program celebrating organizations, people and initiatives making significant contributions to the research reagent sector, combining data-driven and open nomination categories and held at the AACR conference.
- Custom Suppliers Directory Directory connecting researchers with custom service providers including antibody suppliers, cell line suppliers, histology suppliers, peptide suppliers, and sequencing suppliers.
- Antibody Dilution Calculator Free online calculator helping researchers determine correct antibody dilutions for experiments.
- Molarity Calculator Free online calculator for determining molar concentrations and solution preparation.
Quantifiable outcome
- Independent top 5 pharma evaluation estimated a 45% time to shortlist reduction from using CiteAb
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use CiteAb Ltd.
Customer profileNamed customers12 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
CiteAb Ltd. technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration6 records
AI capability7 records
Feature4 records
CiteAb Ltd. partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Six partnerships are on record, tiered core, minor and flagship.
- protocols.iocorePart of the Springer Nature partnership, CiteAb data is integrated into protocols.io platform for streamlined data entry. Scientists can select products when entering protocols, ensuring standardization and easier experiment reproduction. The data also supports advanced AI capabilities including multilingual protocol translations, prompt-to-protocol draft creation, and AI-powered troubleshooting.
- Bio X CellminorCiteAb partnership with Bio X Cell (nearly 30-year life science antibody supplier) to support the life science community. Partnership involves supplier listing and data services.
- Springer NatureflagshipExpanded partnership where CiteAb analyzes Springer Nature's complete life science portfolio (hundreds of thousands of publications) using its industry-leading data collection pipeline combining AI-driven text mining with expert human review. Data feeds into CiteAb search tools, data licensing services, protocols.io integration, and Springer Nature's internal use. CiteAb gained access to Springer Nature Protocols and Methods content, extracting over 150,000 reagent citations to date.
- Storm ConsultancycoreLong-term digital technology agency partner that helped bring CiteAb into the world from its initial concept and has continued to work with the company. Both CiteAb and Storm Consultancy received the Queen's Award for Innovation in 2022.
- University of BathcoreCiteAb was spun out from the University of Bath. The university was instrumental in starting CiteAb, with founder Dr. Andrew Chalmers working in a lab at the University before founding the company. The university continues to collaborate on the International Antibody Validation Meeting.
- WileyminorPartnership with Wiley to make more valuable data accessible to researchers through integration with Wiley's scientific publishing platform.
Scale indicators7 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights7 records
CiteAb Ltd. competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- BenchSci: AI-powered antibody and reagent search platform for life science researchers, with published-application data, vendor-agnostic ranking, and pharma/biotech enterprise subscriptions — the closest direct competitor to CiteAb's citation-ranked reagent search.
- Biocompare: Product search and comparison engine for life science reagents, instruments, and kits, with supplier directories and buying guides — a like-for-like competitor in researcher-facing reagent search and supplier discovery.
- Addgene: Non-profit plasmid and viral vector repository with a public catalog, citation tracking, and researcher-facing search — comparable in operating a citation-linked reagent catalog for academic life scientists.
- ZAGENO: Online life science marketplace aggregating reagents, kits, and consumables from hundreds of suppliers with comparison, citation, and procurement tools; overlaps with CiteAb's supplier listing and search engine for life science researchers.
- SelectScience: Independent review and product information platform for laboratory equipment and reagents, with editorial reviews and supplier content targeting the same researcher buyer as CiteAb.
Others
- Springer Nature: CiteAb's flagship publisher partner, owner of protocols.io and Springer Nature Experiments, and a strategic upstream supplier of publication content — comparable in adjacent data products (experiments, protocols) and material to CiteAb's data flywheel.
- Wiley: Established scientific publisher with a GTM partnership with CiteAb and a portfolio that could support a competing citation or reagent data product — adjacent in category, important as both a partner and a potential competitor.
Broad incumbents
- Bio-Techne: Major reagent and antibody supplier (R&D Systems, Novus Biologicals, ProteinSimple, Abcam) operating broad reagent catalogs and digital tools — relevant incumbent that can extend proprietary product data and search into the same pharma/academic workflows as CiteAb.
- Thermo Fisher Scientific: Largest life science tools supplier (antibodies, reagents, instruments) with its own catalog data, procurement integrations, and AI-enabled search features — a broad incumbent that can bundle competing data and search capabilities to enterprise customers.
Regional players
- Cell Signaling Technology: Large antibody and reagent manufacturer with strong validation data, citation content, and direct relationships with academic and pharma researchers — operates in CiteAb's core antibody/reagent vertical and competes for the same researcher mindshare through proprietary validation content.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
CiteAb Ltd. social profiles
Digital presenceCiteAb Ltd. compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance1 record
CiteAb Ltd. financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
CiteAb Ltd. leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles4 records
CiteAb Ltd. funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
CiteAb Ltd. M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about CiteAb Ltd.
What does CiteAb Ltd. do?
CiteAb operates the CiteAb Explore Platform, a citation-ranked search engine for life science reagents (antibodies, biochemicals, cell lines, kits, instruments, nucleotides, proteins) and an Image Search Engine providing access to cropped experimental images from peer-reviewed publications. The company licenses its proprietary reagent database of 18 million reagents across 650 suppliers—indexed against 40 million publications and 13+ million citations—to pharma, biotech, investors, and scientific publishers, and offers market data services to reagent suppliers.
Is CiteAb Ltd. a public or private company?
CiteAb Ltd. is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was CiteAb Ltd. founded?
CiteAb Ltd. was founded in 2012. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is CiteAb Ltd. based?
CiteAb Ltd. is headquartered in Bath, United Kingdom, in the Europe region.
How does CiteAb Ltd. make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Subscription Revenue is the primary driver. The others are data Licensing, supplier Data Services and publisher Partnerships.
Who are CiteAb Ltd.'s main competitors?
Direct peers on record are BenchSci, Biocompare, Addgene, ZAGENO and SelectScience. Others are Springer Nature and Wiley. Broad incumbents are Bio-Techne and Thermo Fisher Scientific. Cell Signaling Technology is listed as a regional player.
Does CiteAb Ltd. have an API?
Yes. CiteAb MCP (Model Context Protocol) server acts as a universal connector between AI applications and CiteAb's database. The MCP provides scalable access to citation and image data, citation-ranked searching, and experimental filters in real-time. It can be plugged into Claude, ChatGPT, or other compatible LLMs, enabling users to search the CiteAb reagent database alongside internal data within AI tools they are already using. An independent top 5 pharma evaluation estimated a 45% time-to-shortlist reduction from using CiteAb MCP. Developer documentation is at www.citeab.com.
What industry is CiteAb Ltd. in?
CiteAb Ltd.'s product category is Life Science Research Database and Data Analytics. Its primary akta.pro industry code is EDAGAGAG, Scientific & Laboratory Reference (Chemistry, Biology, Physics; Methods & Protocols), with a secondary code of HLAGAIAI, Reagents, Chemicals & Assay Kits (Buffers, Antibodies, ELISA, Enzymes). Its NAICS code is 519 and its SIC code is 8731.