SymbyAI, an innovator in scientific research, announced it has secured $2.1 million in seed funding from prominent investors including Drive Capital and CharacterVC. This SaaS platform, focused on streamlining the research process using AI, is creating an unprecedented integrated workspace for researchers.
Co-founded last year by Ashia Livaudais and Michael House, SymbyAI originated from Livaudais's own struggles in research. "Symby's foundation was built on creating solutions to the problems I faced daily," Livaudais said in an interview with TechCrunch. "As we realized we could successfully and repeatedly reduce key research processes from months to hours, the demand for a productized version started appearing in almost every discovery conversation I had."
SymbyAI provides researchers with a structured workspace, allowing seamless access to papers, code, data, and experiment logs all in one platform. Beyond tracking research progress, the platform features innovative AI capabilities specifically designed to assist with peer review and research reproducibility.
Particularly noteworthy is SymbyAI's reliance on a proprietary AI solution, unlike many platforms that depend on third-party AI services. "Users don't have to worry about accidentally sending confidential information to OpenAI, Anthropic, or any other company," Livaudais emphasized. The platform ensures researchers' intellectual property remains solely theirs and is not used to train SymbyAI's underlying models.
SymbyAI is actively building partnerships with academic publishers, research institutions, and universities. The company's funding journey began with Livaudais's participation in gener8tor's gBeta program, where she connected with early investors, including Antler. According to Livaudais, Antler seized an early investment opportunity by participating in the pre-seed round.
The company stated it will use the new funding to fuel its growth and implement initial partnership plans, further solidifying its position in the AI-assisted research field.