Friday, November 22, 2024

DeepL, a European rival to Google Translate, rides AI hype to a $2 billion valuation

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Deepl CEO Jarek Jaroslaw.

DeepL

PARIS — DeepL, an artificial intelligence-powered translation platform, said Wednesday it’s raised $300 million in fresh funding, in a sign investors are still willing to invest major sums into the AI space. 

The deal, led by venture capital firm Index Ventures, boosts DeepL’s valuation to $2 billion.

ICONIQ Growth and Teachers’ Venture Growth came on board as new investors, while existing investors IVP, Atomico and WiL also participated.

At $2 billion, DeepL is now worth double what it was in its previous round in January 2023, when it raised $100 million from investors at a $1 billion valuation. 

Launched in 2017 by founder and CEO Jaroslaw “Jarek” Kutylowski, DeepL is a competitor to Google Translate.

“We’re highly focused on continued growth and innovation to expand our solutions and ensure they remain industry-leading in terms of quality, precision, and security,” Kutylowski said in a statement Wednesday.

“This will bring us closer to a future where every company, regardless of location, can operate seamlessly on a global scale with our AI,” he added.

DeepL offers translations between 32 different languages including English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Polish and Dutch.

The company said its fresh funding round would give it financial ammunition to expand and grow in key strategic markets like the U.S., as well as invest in research and development. The U.S. is now DeepL’s third-largest market. DeepL opened its first U.S. office in January.

The company has ramped up its focus on selling into enterprise in the past few years and now counts customers including Zendesk, Nikkei, Coursera and Deutsche Bahn.

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