CatalyzeX

CatalyzeX operates a search and discovery platform for machine learning research, aimed at helping developers, data scientists and applied researchers identify the techniques and models that fit a given use case and move directly to working code. Users can search for available techniques and models for a specific use case and jump to the corresponding code implementation in one click, reducing the gap between identifying a promising approach and implementing it.

Alongside the website, the company distributes browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox that automatically detect machine learning papers a user encounters while browsing and surface relevant code implementations for them. The product also provides a way to contact paper authors directly with questions or requests for clarification. Although the underlying approach could apply to research in general, the company has concentrated on machine learning as a broadly applicable domain, and uses crawlers and aggregators to build up the data needed to match research to use cases.

Founding story

CatalyzeX was co-founded by brothers Gaurav and Himanshu Ragtah, who grew up in New Delhi, India, in a neighborhood originally settled by refugees following the partition of India and Pakistan. Gaurav came to the United States on a scholarship in 2009 and Himanshu followed later; both worked on machine learning projects at U.S. technology companies. Gaurav previously led fraud prevention at Yelp and worked on machine learning and data engineering projects at Google, Klout and Columbia University, while Himanshu has a background in intelligent systems and worked on manufacturing test automation at Tesla. Observing the volume of new AI research and the friction developers faced in finding usable code and know-how, they set out to build a tool to surface the most applicable models for a given use case.

Business model

The company provides a web-based search platform and browser extensions to individual technical users; sources describe user adoption and product distribution but do not detail pricing or paid tiers.

Traction

Over 30,000 weekly active users as of November 2021, and more than 0.5 million code implementations served per day, with a stated aim of expanding the user base by multiple orders of magnitude.

Latest developments

In November 2021 the company announced a $1.64 million seed round intended to expand operations and business reach, and outlined plans for integrations and partnerships with code collaboration and AI research platforms as well as hiring in India.