Recently, Boston-based startup Smartcat announced a Series C round ofFinancingin which it successfully raised $43 million, a sum that will further boost the development of its AI translation platform.
Founded in 2016, Smartcat specializes in providing efficient translation solutions for businesses. Co-founder and CEO Ivan Smolnikov said the company currently has over 1,000 enterprise customers, of which 20% is a Fortune 500 company, and its clientele ranges from large multinational corporations to several government organizations.
Smolnikov's background is legendary. Prior to founding Smartcat, he was a physicist working on fiber optic materials. He then chose the entrepreneurial path, initially founding ABBYY LS, a language services company, from which he incubated Smartcat, and from the outset, Smolnikov aspired to disrupt the labor-intensive, human-dependent model of traditional agencies, using an AI platform to provide enterprises with efficient processing of multilingual content.
Smartcat currently offers a wide range of services, supporting the translation of written and spoken content into 280 languages. It's worth noting that Smartcat doesn't necessarily train its own translation models, but rather uses a "matching engine" to determine which third-party models are best suited for a particular piece of content. While AI translations can occasionally make mistakes, Smartcat also offers human translation and editing services.
Regarding the company's growth, Smolnikov said the funds raised will be used primarily to expand the team, drive product development and enhance marketing and sales activities. Investors also recognized Smartcat's growth prospects Vinny Pujji, managing partner of Left Lane Capital, said Smartcat is uniquely positioned to continue to gain a competitive advantage in the market.