Unbabel

Unbabel is an artificial intelligence-powered human translation platform. The company has headquarters in Lisbon, Portugal, and San Francisco, California.

Unbabel Inc.
TypePrivate
IndustryTranslation, Language Localisation, Artificial Intelligence
Founded2013 (2013)
Founders
  • Vasco Calais Pedro
  • João Graça
  • Sofia Pessanha
  • Bruno Silva
  • Hugo Silva
Headquarters
Lisbon, Portugal and San Francisco, California, USA
Key people
  • Vasco Pedro (CEO)
  • João Graça (CTO)
  • Amy Kux (CFO)
  • Wolfgang Allisat (CCO)
Number of employees
148 (October 2018)
Websiteunbabel.com

Unbabel combines Neural Machine Translation with machine learning and a crowdsourced model to differentiate itself from other translation service providers. The name Unbabel is derived from the biblical story of Babel. The company is focused on the translation of customer service communications.

History

Unbabel was founded in August 2013 by Vasco Pedro, João Graça, Sofia Pessanha, Bruno Silva, and Hugo Silva and was incubated by Y Combinator in late 2014. The company was officially launched in March 2014.[1]

In May 2014, Unbabel raised a $1.5 million Seed round to support the growth and development of its translation platform, receiving investment from prominent venture capital firms and business angels including Google Ventures, Matrix Partners, Caixa Capital,[2] Faber Ventures, IDG Ventures, Digital Garage, Shilling Capital Partners, Wefunder, FundersClub, Elad Gil[3] and Raymond Tonsing.[4][5][6]

In early 2015, Unbabel was recognized as one of Y Combinator’s fastest growing Seed stage companies.[7] In late 2016, Unbabel raised $5 million from lead investors Notion Capital and Caixa Capital.[8]

In early 2018, Unbabel raised $23 million in Series B funding, led by Scale Venture Partners and Notion Capital, bringing its total venture capital funding to $31.2 million.[9] The company is privately held.

On September 24, Unbabel raised $60 million in Series C funding to further refine its AI+human translation platform. The latest funding round was led by Point72 Ventures with participation from e.ventures, Greycroft, Indico Capital Partners and existing investors, bringing its total funding to $91 million.[10]

In The U.S.

In August 2019 Unbabel opened a research lab in Pittsburgh, PA. The lab is led by U.S. researcher Alon Lavie.[11][12]

Its customers include easyJet, Booking.com, Rovio Entertainment, Under Armour, Pinterest, and Facebook.

References
  1. Rip Empson, “Unbabel Launches A Human-Edited Machine Translation Service To Help Businesses Go Global, Localize Customer Support”, “TechCrunch”, March 23, 2014.
  2. "Caixa Capital". angel.co. Retrieved 2016-09-02.
  3. "Elad Gil". angel.co. Retrieved 2018-03-13.
  4. "Raymond Tonsing". angel.co. Retrieved 2018-03-13.
  5. Julian Chokkattu, “Unbabel Raises $1.5M to Expand Translation Service, Grow Customer Base”, “TechCrunch”, July 18, 2014
  6. Kia Kokalitcheva, “Unbabel scores $1.5M to add a human touch to machine-powered translation”, “VentureBeat”, July 18, 2014
  7. Mattermark, “Mattermark Startup Index: Top 10 Y Combinator Companies by Stage”, “Mattermark”, February 9, 2015
  8. Cat Zakrzewski, "Unbabel Gets $5M for AI-Powered Translation Services", "The Wall Street Journal", October 31, 2016
  9. "Unbabel raises $23M for its 'AI-powered, human-refined' translation platform". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
  10. "Unbabel gets $60M for its blended approach to business translation". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-09-25.
  11. "Unbabel to open new artificial intelligence lab". theportugalnews.com. Retrieved 2019-09-03.
  12. Payne, Daniel (2019-08-24). "AI Company Unbabel Set To Open A U.S. Lab". Internet News Flash. Retrieved 2019-09-03.
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