DeepL, a Cologne, Germany-based artificial intelligence startup that provides instant translation-as-a-service to businesses and individuals, raised over $100 million at a $1 billion+ valuation.
The round was led by IVP, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, Atomico, and WiL. Previous backers of the company also include Benchmark and btov.
The funding will be used to expand that scope to cover larger enterprises and to build out new services, such as a Grammarly-style monolingual (same-language) writing improver that is in closed beta now and will be launching soon. It will also continue to invest in R&D.
“What I liked about 2022 was the rise of AI in everyone’s perception,” said Jaroslaw Kutylowski, CEO and founder of DeepL, adding that AI has “more or less become like a typical tool” rather than a novelty. “From our perspective that’s great, allowing us to make an entry into more markets and making usage of our tools more commonplace. It feels like we’ve moved on from, ‘Do I trust AI?"
Company: DeepL SE
Raised: $100.0M+
Round: Unknown
Funding Month: January 2023
Lead Investors: IVP
Additional Investors: Bessemer Venture Partners, Atomico, WiL, Benchmark, and btov
Company Website: https://www.deepl.com/
Software Category: AI Translation
About the Company: Founded in 2017, DeepL developed AI translation technology that enables real-time, human-sounding translation. It translates text, speech, images, and files. It is accessible via a web translator, browser extensions, desktop and mobile apps, and an API. DeepL supports a best-in-class translation experience in 29 languages and counting. The company’s model was originally trained on a database of over a billion translations and queries, plus a method of double-checking translations by searching for similar snippets on the web. Its team operates across four European hubs in Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, and Poland.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/11/deepl-the-ai-based-language-translator-raises-over-100m-at-a-1b-valuation/