2007
Frontiers is launched as a not-for-profit foundation, the Frontiers Research Foundation, relying on philanthropic donations to operate. The foundation continues to exist today, supporting purely philanthropic initiatives, such as Frontiers for Young Minds.
2008
Operations are taken over by Frontiers Media SA, a company created by the founders to enable long-term economic and operational sustainability. The Gold Open Access business model is adopted.
The same year, Frontiers receives an investment from Kaltroco, the private holding company of the Koltes family. They strongly support the vision to make science open and their investment kick-starts the ensuing growth of Frontiers.
2012
Frontiers becomes financially self-sustainable with the Article Processing Charges business model.
2013
The Holtzbrinck Publishing Group (at the time owner of Nature Publishing Group and now majority shareholder of Springer Nature) makes an investment in Frontiers, enabling further growth of the Open Science vision. The two organizations run as independent businesses.
2018
Frontiers publishes its 100,000th article, which have been viewed and downloaded over 500 million times.