Sparrho raises $3 million to open up research papers to a wider audience

London-based Sparrho, a platform for discovering open access research papers, has raised $3 million led by White Could Capital with participation from AllBright and Beast Ventures.

The platform provides access to more than 60 million open access papers, patents, and publications and uses AI to help users sort through and find the research they need. It currently has one million users.

According to Sparrho, the platform provides a clearer path to accessing papers and research that are “gated” by subscriptions to academic journals. Such subscriptions can cost thousands of dollars a year, putting up huge barriers against a wider audience.

“The appetite for direct access to scientific thinking has never been greater. Some of Sparrho’s most dedicated users are members of the public and their interest in science is often driven by their profession, personal interests or medical conditions,” said Dr Vivian Chan, CEO of Sparrho.

“Enterprise is simultaneously looking for new ways to showcase its own science thinking and stay on top of its research landscape. Meanwhile, members of the scientific community commonly report feeling ‘siloed’ in their area of research, and wish to communicate their work in new and dynamic ways.”