Smartling


Smartling is a cloud-based translation technology and services company headquartered in New York City.

History

The company was founded in 2009 by Jack Welde and Andrey Akselrod. In 2012 the company received its first funding beyond bootstrapping with an angel investment of $1.5 million. Its Series A funding was $4 million, and its Series B was $10 million. In its Series C funding it received an additional $24 million, and in its Series D it raised an additional $25 million. The company’s valuation upon its Series D was $250 million. The company is headquartered in New York City. In 2016 Smartling acquired VerbalizeIt, a firm producing translations for companies in the process of expanding internationally. The founders of the company and its staff joined Smartling as a part of the acquisition. Smartling also acquired Jargon in 2016, a company involved in the localization of mobile apps.

Translations

Smartling translates digital content into foreign languages through automated processes, as new content on client sites is flagged for translation and sent to translators for rewriting. When changes to the original language are detected, all foreign-language versions of the website or app are automatically flagged for translation within the platform. The changes are then delivered to front-end users through the back end of a client’s system.
In addition to its translation platform, the company works with a few thousand translators to provide translation services, in addition to its in-house staff of about 160. The process involves translation, followed by a translation review, legal review, and editing. The company does text translations, in addition to audio and video translations. Its enterprise platform and translation services are cloud-based. In addition to translation services, Smartling also developed its "Mobile Localization Solution" and "Mobile Delivery Network" platforms for routine updating of text variances on updated app versions.