Translation platform Smartcat announced today (Sept. 10) that it has secured $43 million in a recent fundraising round led by Left Lane Capital.
The company, which was founded in 2016, provides an all-in-one platform for translation work. It offers AI translating, human translating and a combination of both in hundreds of languages.
What is Smartcat and what will it do with the investment?
Smartcat’s services include translating written and spoken content in more than 200 languages. It does not train AI models itself, instead matching up the most suitable third-party software with certain content and languages.
The Boston-based company claims to have 1,000 customers, including 20 per cent of Fortune 500 companies. One of its newest features is AI video translation and dubbing, allowing for content to be translated quickly.
“I founded Smartcat to reinvent the traditional translation agency model, which is based on a time-consuming, manually-operated, long supply chain, built on human services,” CEO Ivan Smolnikov told TechCrunch.
The latest fundraising round has more than doubled Smartcat’s funding to $70 million. Smolnikov said this will be used to hire more people to his 200-strong team, developing new products and marketing.
A statement from Vinny Pujji, managing partner at investors Left Lane Capital said: “As an early market mover, Smartcat has a broad portfolio of customers and is uniquely positioned to compound the depth and quality of their product offering, continuing to lock in competitive advantages over time.”
Predictions surrounding the AI translating industry’s success are looking promising. Grand View Research estimates that the global market was worth $978.2 million in 2022 and that it could increase at a 13.5% compound annual growth rate between 2023 and 2030.
However, Smolnikov claims that instead of competing with fellow AI services, Smartcat’s main rivals are still traditional translation agencies.
“Traditionally, enterprises relied on outsourcing to agencies,” he said. “Insourcing was another approach, but when done manually, it struggled with scalability … Smartcat’s focus on language AI quality provides a practical [alternative].”
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