Unbabel

Last updated

Unbabel Inc.
Company type Private
IndustryTranslation, Language Localisation, Artificial Intelligence
Founded2013;12 years ago (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)
  • James Palmer (CFO)
  • Alex Cobb (CPO)
Number of employees
349 (December 2022)
Website unbabel.com

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

Contents

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] [10] The company is privately held.

On September 24 2019, 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. [11]

In the United States

In August 2019 Unbabel opened a research lab in Pittsburgh, PA. The lab is led by U.S. researcher Alon Lavie. [12] [13]

Its customers include easyJet, Booking.com, Rovio Entertainment, Under Armour, Pinterest, and Facebook.[ citation needed ]

References

  1. ↑ Empson, Rip (23 March 2014). "Unbabel Launches A Human-Edited Machine Translation Service To Help Businesses Go Global, Localize Customer Support". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 27 February 2021. Retrieved 25 June 2017.
  2. ↑ "Caixa Capital". angel.co. Archived from the original on 21 September 2016. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
  3. ↑ "Elad Gil". angel.co. Archived from the original on 19 September 2016. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  4. ↑ "Raymond Tonsing". angel.co. Archived from the original on 19 September 2016. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  5. ↑ Chokkattu, Julian (18 July 2014). "Unbabel Raises $1.5M to Expand Translation Service, Grow Customer Base". TechCrunch.
  6. ↑ Kokalitcheva, Kia (18 July 2014). "Unbabel scores $1.5M to add a human touch to machine-powered translation". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on 6 October 2017. Retrieved 17 September 2017.
  7. ↑ "Mattermark Startup Index: Top 10 Y Combinator Companies by Stage". Mattermark. 9 February 2015. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
  8. ↑ Zakrzewski, Cat (31 October 2016). "Unbabel Gets $5M for AI-Powered Translation Services". Wall Street Journal. ISSN   0099-9660. Archived from the original on 20 January 2022. Retrieved 29 July 2025.
  9. ↑ "Unbabel raises $23M for its 'AI-powered, human-refined' translation platform". TechCrunch. Retrieved 16 October 2018.
  10. ↑ "Unbabel raises $ 23 million in new funding round". Técnico Lisboa. 15 January 2018. Archived from the original on 6 October 2022. Retrieved 29 July 2025.
  11. ↑ "Unbabel gets $60M for its blended approach to business translation". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 30 September 2019. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
  12. ↑ "Unbabel to open new artificial intelligence lab". theportugalnews.com. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  13. ↑ Payne, Daniel (24 August 2019). "AI Company Unbabel Set To Open A U.S. Lab". Internet News Flash. Archived from the original on 3 September 2019. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
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