CiteAb Ltd.

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.

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

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

• Reagent search engine
• Citation-ranked database
• Life science data licensing
• Antibody validation platform
• Scientific publication analytics

Headquarters

HQ city

Bath

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Publisher Partnerships: Partner with scientific publishers to maximize exposure and revenue from publications through data integration and citation tracking services.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core 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

Named customers12 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration6 records

AI capability7 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core, minor and flagship.

• protocols.iocoreTechnology or Integration · 16 June 2026Part 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 CellminorGTM or Marketing Partner · 12 November 2025CiteAb 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 NatureflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 September 2022Expanded 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 ConsultancycoreTechnology or IntegrationLong-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 BathcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCiteAb 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.
• WileyminorGTM or Marketing PartnerPartnership 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

Direct 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

• Facebookfacebook.com/CiteAb
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/citeab
• Instagraminstagram.com/citeab
• Xx.com/citeab

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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 CiteAb Ltd.