Berlin-based startup closed Series B funding round led by Molten Ventures with an eye to leading the market in workflow solutions that enable academic societies and publishers to protect research integrity and publish with confidence.
Berlin, London, and Washington DC, January 23, 2024 – Morressier, the Berlin-based startup transforming scholarly communications, today announced it has attracted $16.5m in investment in a Series B round led by Molten Ventures and with the participation of existing investors including Redalpine, Owl Ventures, and Cherry Ventures. This growth investment follows the company’s Series A round communicated in May 2021, and will be topped up with further funding for acquisition opportunities.
Morressier counts some of the industry’s leading players in the scientific ecosystem as customers, including: IOP Publishing, AAAS, ASCE, APS, and Mayo Clinic. The company will use its Series B growth capital for continued product innovation, scaling its go-to-market activities, including the institutional and corporate market, and to expand partnerships with leading research integrity vendors.
"Attracting such strong support from investors in this climate is the ultimate validation that Morressier is doing critical work."
Sami Benchekroun, Morressier co-founder and CEO: “Attracting such strong support from investors in this climate is the ultimate validation that Morressier is doing critical work. Science is experiencing an integrity crisis and this investment will help us to double down on our efforts to support academic societies, institutions and publishers in this fight.”
Christoph Hornung, partner at Molten Ventures said, “There is a massive need for a new infrastructure in the science world, and we are convinced that Morressier with its highly experienced team will be shaping the new structure of this industry in the following years.”
Morressier recently announced its Integrity Manager, designed to protect research integrity at every step of the publishing journey. The company already offers scientific researchers a suite of pre-submission checks to ensure submission completeness, quality, and help comply with industry standards. Integrity tools are also being developed into Journal Manager, a state-of-the-art journal submission system under development, with IOP Publishing on board as the first major client.
Research integrity threats are a growing and evolving issue, with a study showing 34% of neuroscience papers published in 2020 were likely made up or plagiarized. One in five articles published in journals may contain faked data produced by “paper mills” that are paid to fabricate scientific submissions, according to a study by German researchers who used new techniques to “red flag” problematic papers.
"Deepening our partnerships across the scholarly publishing industry is core to Morressier’s growth."
Othman Altalib, Morressier Chief Growth Officer: “Deepening our partnerships across the scholarly publishing industry is core to Morressier’s growth: it ensures that we remain aligned with and supportive of stakeholder needs. This latest investment is going to be of huge benefit to our customers and the broader scholarly publishing community, as we up the ante in the research integrity arms race on their behalf.”
Miriam Maus, Chief Publishing Officer at IOP Publishing: “We see our partnership with Morressier as a real opportunity to reimagine the publishing experience for our authors and reviewers. By building a new submission and peer review system around the needs of the research community, we can optimise our workflows in ways that will make a real difference. As we work to enhance the publishing process, the validity of the science we publish is always front of mind and so we welcome the news of this latest investment in Morressier. It will strengthen their game in rising to the evolving challenges of research integrity.”
Morressier has been actively strengthening its team since the investment, attracting a wealth of experience into key roles at the executive level and across the team, with a number of recruitment processes ongoing.