The translation platform was able to quickly find a place in this market, previously occupied by Google with its “Translation” solution. Over the years, DeepL has been able to attract a wider audience, by offering offers adapted to businesses and by building an economic model around its service. Today, the company that has become a unicorn announces that it is raising $300 million to stimulate its development.
Index Ventures led this round, which also includes the participation of Iconiq Growth, Teacher's Venture Growth, as well as other investors such as IVP, Atomico and WiL, already partners of DeepL. With this financing, the German company saw its valuation rise to $2 billion.
Advertisement
The integration of AI into linguistics, a winning bet
To date, DeepL claims to be present in around sixty international markets for just over 100,000 companies, governments and other client organizations. We thus find Zendesk, Nikkei, Coursera or even Deutsche Bahn who rely on this linguistic AI platform to ensure the fluidity of their communications.
For its founder and managing director, Jarek Kutylowski, translation is going through a pivotal period at a time when AI is taking up more and more space in our daily lives. “The AI phenomenon is approaching a tipping point, and businesses that are rushing to adopt this technology are beginning to see the difference between hype and secure solutions that actually solve their problems,” he indicates. The company has managed to stand out by relying on LLMs specially adapted to language processing and not for general use, improving translation and writing skills. A choice which also allows it to reduce the risk of hallucinations and false information.
A ready-made roadmap
In recent months, DeepL has accelerated the development of its offer and its international presence. In January 2024, the company, for example, strengthened its presence in the United States, its third largest market, by opening its first offices there. Recruitments are still underway, specifies the company. More recently, last April, DeepL also expanded its offering of business-friendly products and launched DeepL Write Pro, a writing tool specially designed for professional texts and which uses large language models developed in-house.
In the coming years, the German company plans to continue its investments in research and innovation to strengthen its range of AI communication tools for businesses. At the same time, it keeps the door open to recruiting qualified profiles in AI research, product development, engineering, sales and marketing, all with a single objective: to develop its presence on the global market.
Advertisement
AI fights against language barriers
In addition to its professional offerings, DeepL is continually expanding its catalog of languages supported on its platform, with the recent addition of Arabic, Korean and Norwegian, bringing the total number of languages offered to 32. Rightly so, because artificial intelligence promises to solve a certain number of problems from a linguistic point of view and to help everyone communicate better by removing language barriers.
THE language sector, which is currently worth $67.9 billionis expected to reach $95.3 billion by 2028. The implementation of AI in this area represents a considerable advantage, saving time and reducing costs. A study carried out by Forrester in 2024 found that using DeepL generated a 345% ROI for international businesses, reducing translation times by 90% and resulting in a 50% reduction in workload. Note that the study was commissioned by DeepL and that it is therefore appropriate to take a step back from the figures announced.
Do you want to stay up to date on the latest news in the artificial intelligence sector? Register for free to the IA Insider newsletter.
Selected for you