Litmaps, a Wellington-based startup that’s just raised $1 million in a Series A funding round, is redefining how scientists navigate the sea of academic literature by merging citation network analysis with generative AI. 

Founded in 2016 by Axton Pitt and Kyle Webster, the platform now serves over 2 million researchers globally, including institutions like Harvard, Stanford, and the University of Cambridge. Its mission? To "accelerate impactful science" by helping researchers identify gaps in knowledge and avoid redundant work.

The playbook is the same pursued by many Kiwi startup founders with Kyle and Axton, who was a University of Auckland biomedical and computer science student at the time, growing frustrated with legacy systems poorly equipped to meet the needs of modern researchers. 

“We just found the tools that you had to use very clunky,” Axton told me on this week’s episode of The Business of Tech. The acquisition of rival Research Rabbit now gives Litmaps an audience of millions worldwide. Find out how better scientific research discovery, powered by AI and visualisations, is changing how science is done on episode 99 of The Business of Tech.

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