Experiment
YC W13Honolulu, US · Founded 2012 · 1 employees · 9 known investors
Experiment is a platform for discovering, funding, and sharing scientific research. The platform aims to democratize science by enabling anyone to participate in and support scientific endeavors.
Also known as Experiment.com
Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (W13)
Experiment was founded in 2012 by Denny Luan.
Investors · 9
Also in the syndicate · 1
Funding
SEC filings, press & company announcementsSource: company announcements and press reports — follow each round's link for the claim.
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Experiment operates an online platform through which researchers publish project proposals for hypothesis-driven scientific work and raise funds from individual backers and institutional funders. Projects follow a defined process: a researcher creates and organizes an open grant application, receives feedback from community peer reviewers and platform staff, raises funds from backers, and then posts progress through open lab notes and shared results.
Beyond crowdfunding, the platform hosts grant programs on behalf of science funders and foundations, allowing the same project submission to be used both for a crowdfunding campaign and for applications to grant opportunities. Listed programs include Hyperspectral Biology, The Range Storytelling Science Fund, MPA Monitoring and Enforcement Innovation, and California Species Collection, alongside programs from funders such as the Homeworld Foundation and the Wildlife Disease Association at the $50,000 level.
Platform features include project dashboards with analytics, lab notes for documenting research narratives, flexible fund disbursement options, collaborator management, optional public or private project visibility, free Digital Object Identifier archival for funded projects, support for methods, files and citations, and a researcher guide covering science communication.
Business model
Experiment intermediates between scientists seeking project funding and funders, operating both open crowdfunding campaigns and managed grant programs for organizations that want to distribute research funding through the platform.
Traction
The site states more than 1 million users and features funded projects at 100-167% of goal with dozens of backers each. Individual grant programs report awarded totals from roughly $45,970 to $112,630, and one partner reports funding 109 projects through a program run on Experiment. Highlighted projects include genome sequencing of the Azolla fern by a Duke University team, published in Nature Plants, and genetics research on fatal familial insomnia by Sonia Vallabh and Eric Minikel.
Latest developments
The platform lists two new grant programs from the Homeworld Foundation (biology) and the Wildlife Disease Association (ecology), each at $50,000. A funded community lab, Cellsius Community Biology Laboratory, reports plans to expand to a second space by the end of 2025 with 50 members and a broader community of more than 1,800 people.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, history
Market position
Positions itself as a funding channel for research outside conventional grant gatekeeping, including community and "outsider" science, combining crowdfunding mechanics with structured grant administration.
Purpose-built for hypothesis-driven scientific projects rather than general crowdfunding, with peer and staff review of proposals, open lab notes, free DOI archival, and dual use of a single project submission for both crowdfunding and grant applications.
Technology
A web platform for project creation and review, community peer feedback, fund collection and disbursement, project dashboards with analytics and statistics, lab-note publishing, collaborator access management, project artifact and citation hosting, and automatic DOI assignment for funded projects.
Go-to-market
Researchers self-serve by creating and sharing project proposals publicly; funders and organizations are onboarded as grant program partners, and the platform promotes grant alerts and an application funnel to match researchers with funding opportunities.
Academic and independent researchers, amateur and community scientists, university-affiliated project teams, and science funders including foundations and scientific associations that run grant programs.
History
The website states the company has been "helping make ideas real since 2010" and references over a decade of team experience supporting researchers.
Compiled by commissioned research from 1 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
In the news
▸Research sources · 1
primary sources listed
- Experimentexperiment.com · web
1 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Experiment do?
- Experiment is a crowdfunding and grant-program platform that connects scientific researchers with funders of all sizes.
- Who founded Experiment?
- Experiment was founded by Denny Luan in 2012.
- Who are Experiment's investors?
- Experiment's investors include K5 Ventures, Metaplanet, Y Combinator, Andreessen Horowitz, Founder Collective, Greycroft, Mercury Fund, Slow Ventures.
- Where is Experiment headquartered?
- Experiment is headquartered in Honolulu, US.