AI translator DeepL announces $300 million investment

The round, led by Index Ventures, reflects companies’ growing interest in function-specific AI models.

DeepL, a German startup specializing in artificial intelligence-assisted translation services, announced Wednesday it has secured $300 million in investment at a $2 billion valuation in a round led by Index Ventures.

The round led by Index Ventures.

The company’s success reflects growing business interest in AI models focused on specific functions, in this case translation, rather than the general-purpose models popularized by OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

The Cologne-based company, founded in 2017, utilizes a proprietary generative AI model trained and developed to bring a new level of sophistication, accuracy, and idiomatic understanding to business translation.

According to DeepL, the company currently has more than 100,000 customers from business, government and other organizations, including Tokyo-based media company Nikkei, online course provider Coursera, German railroad company Deutsche Bahn and software company Zendesk.

«Broad base models will be very, very useful for many things, but especially when you get into the enterprise space, they will be more industry or vertically focused» — says Danny Rimer, a partner at Index Ventures.

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Rimer says the bar for accuracy, privacy and security of translations in the corporate context is much higher than in the consumer context, but that’s where vertical models designed for one specific task can outperform broader competitors.

Rimer says the bar for accuracy, privacy and security of translations in the corporate context is much higher than in the consumer context, but that’s where vertical models designed for one specific task can outperform broader competitors.

In a recent survey of U.S. CEOs by professional services firm KPMG, 97% said they plan to invest in generative AI in the next 12 months, with nearly a quarter intending to invest between $100 million and $249 million. Only 6 % plan to invest more than $500 million, the survey showed.

The survey found.

Generative AI CEO and founder Jarek Kutylowski said DeepL is targeting its specialized AI models at business translation, which today is often done with human translators, because consumer-facing translation tools typically have a lower bar for accuracy.

«When you are vacationing in Spain, obviously translating the menu card is important, but the quality of the translation is not so important. When you want to send an email to a customer, the difference is huge, and we noticed that very quickly» —he says.

He said the neural network and data architecture behind the DeepL tool allows the product, which is available through Web pages, apps, embeds in other apps and integrates into companies’ own products and platforms, to provide finer and more accurate translations. The company added that it has thousands of human language experts to help train the models.

Human language experts help train the models.