About
We build for people who read for a living.
Oriel started in a university library, with three researchers and too many open tabs. It is still made by people who read papers every week.
Our story
Reading is the slow part of research. We think it should be the calm part too.
In 2021 we were writing a review on urban heat. Two hundred PDFs, four reference managers, one shared spreadsheet that nobody trusted. We built a small tool to keep highlights and sources together. Colleagues asked for it, then their students did.
Today Oriel is used by students, labs and independent writers in more than forty countries. We are a small team, funded by our customers, and we plan to stay that way.
2021
Started in a university library
14
People on the team
40+
Countries with readers
0
Investors to answer to
What we believe
Three rules we don’t break.
Every answer shows its source
If Oriel can’t point to the page, it says so instead of guessing.
Your work is not our data
We never train models on your papers, notes or questions.
Quiet by default
No streaks, no badges, no notifications you didn’t ask for.
The team
Researchers, designers and engineers.
Nadia Okafor
Co-founder, research
Jonas Brandt
Co-founder, engineering
Mei Varga
Design lead
Rafael Costa
Machine learning
Give your reading a quieter room.
Bring your first ten papers in. It takes about two minutes.