Scientific research is all about collaboration, and an up-and-coming social network called ResearchGate wants to make it easier for scientists to connect and share with one another.

Today, the Berlin-based startup revealed that it has been operating off a huge influx of cash from a $52.6 million Series D funding round that has allowed it to develop new features and scale up its platform.

According to ResearchGate, the funding round had actually closed all the way back in November 2015. But the company has only now revealed the massive sum it had received, which included investments from Bill Gates, Goldman Sachs,  the Wellcome Trust and others.

ResearchGate has already been around for awhile now, founded in 2008 by physicians Ijad Madisch and Sören Hofmayer and computer scientist Horst Fickenscher. Madisch, who serves as the company’s chief executive, told Business Insider that he had never planned on talking about the funding, which he considers “pretty boring.”

He revealed the funding now because ResearchGate had to disclose its funding to the German government. “I prefer talking about the impact rather than raising money,” Madisch said.

The company’s significant funding has allowed it to expand its platform. Last year the social network launched a new feature called Projects, which allows scientists to collaborate with one another during ongoing research. ResearchGate revealed Monday that more than 1 million researchers are using the feature to work together on more than 500,000 projects.

“You are sharing research from start to finish, from datasets to negative results and papers,” said Danielle Bengsch, managing editor of ResearchGate’s blog. “You are engaging in discussions about research questions and are sharing feedback about ongoing work. This collaboration is happening across scientific fields and worldwide.”

Since receiving the funding in 2015, ResearchGate has also more than doubled the size of its team, and the company expanded its infrastructure to support more users and data.

ResearchGate could also open a new office in a non-German country in the near future. Madisch said that the company has not come to a decision on where it might go, but he suggested that another European country or the United States would be the most likely.

Photo: ResearchGate