Gengo, an increasingly popular online translation service that uses a network of more than 7,500 pre-screened and rated translators to provide high-quality translations in 33 languages, announced that it has raised a $12 million funding round. The round was led by Intel Capital, with participation from Iris Capital, Infocomm, NTT-IP and Saudi Telecom Ventures, as well as returning investor Atomico. The service previously raised a total of $6.8 million, including a $5.25 million series A round led by Atomico and Dave McClure’s 500 Startups. McClure is also a Gengo board member.
The fact that a number of telecom companies are part of this round, Gengo’s CEO and founder Robert Laing told me in an email earlier today, “shows how telecoms companies ‘get’ the global opportunity of Gengo.”
“The Gengo team is excited about working with investors from Asia, the USA, Europe, and the Middle East, led by Intel Capital, because of their global experience and track record helping entrepreneurs,” Laing writes in today’s announcement.
Added Matthew Romaine, CTO and co-founder of Gengo: “There’s a significant technology component to human translation at scale, so it’s great to work with a firm with the pedigree of Intel Capital.”
Currently, Japan and the U.S. account for about 40 percent of Gengo’s revenue each. The company currently has a staff of 30 in its Tokyo office and nine employees in San Mateo.
According to Laing, the company has been growing rapidly. Gengo’s translators have already translated more texts in 2013 than they did during 2012. Part of this growth, of course, is due to the recent partnership with Google’s YouTube, which has now made Gengo one of its two integrated paid translation services, as well as a recent partnership with 3Play Media.
Besides video, Laing says, Gengo is also seeing a huge volume of translations from travel and e-commerce sites, including from a number of “leading e-commerce, online travel, and community portals” that are currently powered by its translation platform.
The Gengo team plans to use this new round of funding to accelerate its global expansion and improve both its translation platform and increase the speed of the translation process.