Smartcat Secures $43M to keep advancing AI in translation, but it is unlikely that AI will completely replace human translators each time quickly. One of the main motives is that AI translations regularly need more depth and richness than human translators deliver to their paintings.
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While AI can provide “accurate” translations, these translations can feel a chunk flat, like a textbook model of the unique text. On the opposite hand, human translators convey non-public experience and cultural expertise, which adds a completely unique “spice” to translations.
That stated, for lots agencies, accuracy is enough. This is why AI-powered translation services have become increasingly popular. One of the important thing gamers in this discipline is Smartcat, a business enterprise based in 2016. Smartcat specializes in growing automatic translation equipment for agencies.
According to Ivan Smolnikov, the co-founder and CEO of Smartcat, the business has been booming. “We have over 1,000 corporate customers, including 20% of the Fortune 500,” he told TechCrunch. Smartcat’s clients include large global companies and government agencies from various countries.
Before starting Smartcat, Smolnikov worked as a physicist at the Russian Academy of Sciences, studying fibre optics materials. After two years in the lab, he switched gears and entered the business world. He started a language services company called ABBYY LS, where Smartcat was first developed. In 2016, Smartcat spun off into its own company, and Smolnikov left ABBYY to focus on his new venture full-time.
Smolnikov’s goal with Smartcat was to modernize the traditional translation agency model, which typically involves a slow, manual process. Smartcat’s AI-powered platform is designed to make things faster and more efficient for companies working with multilingual content.
Smartcat, based in Boston, offers various tools, apps, and services to help companies translate written and spoken content, such as e-learning courses, websites, documents, and software, into roughly 280 languages. Interestingly, Smartcat doesn’t train its own AI translation models. Instead, it uses a “matching engine” that selects the most suitable third-party model for the specific content and target language.
In some cases, Smartcat fine-tunes these translation models, especially if a company has an extensive database of commonly used phrases they want the AI to remember and use correctly.
Recognizing that AI can sometimes make mistakes, Smartcat also gives customers access to a network of professional translators and editors who can review and improve the translations for a fee. Smolnikov explains, “Customers can choose between AI translation, human translation, or a combination of both — automatic translation with professional editing.”
A few years ago, translators who claimed Smartcat had issues with dishonest or non-paying clients complained on Reddit. However, Smolnikov assured us that these problems had been resolved, and now translators can set their rates, minus a small fee of 2% to 8%, depending on the volume of the job and the locations of the translators and clients.
While many other companies in the AI translation market, such as EasyTranslate, D-ID, DeepL, Lilt, and Lengoo, Smolnikov sees Smartcat’s main competition coming from traditional translation agencies and in-house teams. “Enterprises have traditionally outsourced to agencies or relied on in-house teams, but manual processes struggle with scalability,” he said. “Smartcat’s focus on high-quality AI translations offers a practical alternative.”
Investors agree with this vision. On Tuesday, Smartcat announced that Smartcat Secures $43M in a Series C funding round led by Left Lane Capital, bringing the company’s total funding to $70 million. Smolnikov plans to use the new funds to grow Smartcat’s 200-person team, enhance its product offerings, and boost marketing and sales efforts.
Vinny Pujji, coping with accomplice at Left Lane Capital, praised Smartcat’s early success, announcing, “Smartcat has a broad portfolio of clients and is in a strong role to preserve improving its merchandise and gaining an aspect over competition.”
The AI translation market might be very lucrative if industry predictions are correct. According to Grand View Research, the global marketplace for system translation answers, valued at $978.2 million in 2022, could grow at an annual charge of 13.5% from 2023 to 2030. This fast growth may want to suggest huge things for companies like Smartcat.
