NZ Startup Litmaps Acquires US Rival And Raises $1M To Accelerate AI-Driven Research Worldwide

Scoop

07-05-2025

(Wellington, NZ) – Litmaps, an AI-powered research discovery platform, has announced the first close of a $1 million raise after doubling its ARR to $1M and acquiring US-based research tool ResearchRabbit which will supercharge its global user base to over 2 million. Now one of the world's fastest-growing research discovery platforms, Litmaps has become an essential tool for researchers, scientists and students globally, including most of the major universities as they strive to increase the impact of their research.
'Most tools for navigating academic literature are outdated, clunky or simply not built for the way modern science works. Litmaps flips that by giving researchers a clear, visual way to understand what's already been done; and just as crucially, what hasn't. 'We're helping scientists move faster, avoid duplication and focus on conducting the research that actually helps them push humanity forward,' says Axton Pitt, Co-founder - Litmaps.
'We've already seen Litmaps unlock insights in everything from climate research to cancer detection. With growing institutional interest, we're ready to bring this capability to every corner of academia and commercial R&D. The opportunity is enormous because better research tools mean faster innovation,' Pitt adds.
Litmaps' acquisition of ResearchRabbit's tool with a sizable user base brings Litmaps closer to becoming the world's most widely adopted home for literature discovery, merging its distinctive visual citation maps and trusted AI tools with additional insights and impressive UX improvements.
The round's first close (of NZ$680K) was led by UK-based Scholarly Angels. 'Litmaps is at the forefront of a number of companies that are disrupting traditional discovery with a combination of AI and citation network analysis,' says Andrew Preston, Lead Investor at Scholarly Angels and Founder of Publons (acquired by Clarivate). 'Their successful B2C model combined with the acquisition of Research Rabbit positions them for rapid expansion and significant impact. We look forward to supporting their growth,' he adds.
Everyday application
Litmaps helps researchers answer key questions like: Who's published in this space? What are the emerging themes? Where are the gaps? Unlike traditional tools, it delivers a dynamic, visualised view of prior research backed by AI and verified data - without the hallucinations of large language models. The browser-based tool saves engineers and scientists time by combining interactive citation maps, modern search tools and models of a researchers' existing knowledge to create an accurate and visual research discovery experience. Its datasets include open metadata of scientific papers published in journals like Nature, and The Lancet, PubMed, and arXiv.org out of Cornell University.
Litmaps supports researchers at institutions including Harvard, Stanford, Imperial College London, and University of Cambridge and is being used everywhere from AI labs to medtech startups.
One Orthopaedic Trauma Surgeon with an impressive 35-year career in the field uses Litmaps to conduct pre-surgical research and comments that it's like having a second opinion before they step into the operating room. Even with decades of experience, Dr. Muñoz continuously stays up-to-date on recent research in his field. His use of Litmaps is 'often theoretical, [but] sometimes it has clinical application.' The latter is especially true when Dr. Muñoz wants to quickly understand any recent developments for special clinical cases such as addressing a unique fracture case.
Tech-powered science gaining traction
Litmaps' large user base spans the globe including the U.S., India, Indonesia and China - evidence of a fast-growing global movement toward tech-powered science. Its growth comes from relentless focus on product-led growth 'We've built a product scientists actually want to use. It's fun, intuitive and most importantly - trusted,' says Co-founder Axton Pitt. 'When you're making decisions that affect your whole career or large investments in R&D, you need confidence. Litmaps gives users that confidence because its outputs are verified. It is not a black box and you can see this evidence visually.'
'Science deserves better software,' says Pitt. 'And we're just getting started.'
About Litmaps
Litmaps is a Wellington-based software startup building the world's most intuitive AI-powered platform for research discovery. With over 2 million users, Litmaps helps scientists, academics and R&D teams explore prior research through interactive visual maps, trusted citation data and validated AI insights.