Authorea Nabs $610k For Its Bid To Become A ‘Google Docs For Scientists’ | TechCrunch

"Authorea, a startup that’s aiming to shake up the staid scientific publication process — of learned journals and lengthy peer reviews — with a digital collaboration platform that encourages more immediate knowledge-sharing in the scientific research community, has closed a $610,000 seed round, jointly led by ff Venture Capital and NY Angels. Prior to the round Authorea was bootstrapping but had previously pulled in a £20,000/$33,000 grant from a Digital Science Catalyst competition. The latest tranche of funding will go towards expanding its team — with six new hires in developer, sales and marketing being planned. Co-founder and CEO, Alberto Pepe, who has a background in astrophysics — including two years working at CERN in Switzerland — tells TechCrunch the product soft-launched in February last year, with an initial invitation to friends and colleagues to test it out. Since then it’s let usage grow organically and now reports 10,000 users, with a growth rate of around 4% per week ..."