German AI-translation unicorn DeepL secures $300M at $2B valuation: Know more

Cologne, Germany-based DeepL, a language AI company, announced on Wednesday, May 22, that it has secured $300M (approximately €277M) at a $2B valuation led by Index Ventures.

Additional late-stage investors, including ICONIQ Growth, Teachers’ Venture Growth, and others, also participated, along with existing investors IVP, Atomico, and WiL.

Fund utilisation

The company will use the funds to invest in research and product innovation to strengthen its suite of AI communication tools for businesses. 

The company is also doubling down on global market expansion and talent recruitment across multiple areas, including AI research, product, engineering, and GTM. 

“We’re approaching an inflection point in the AI boom where businesses who are racing to adopt the technology begin to discern between hype versus solutions that are secure and solve real problems in their business,” says Jarek Kutylowski, founder and CEO of DeepL. 

“This new investment comes during what is on track to be DeepL’s most transformative year yet and is a testament to the crucial role that our Language AI platform has in solving the complex linguistic challenges global companies face today. We’re highly focused on continued growth and innovation to expand our solutions and ensure they remain industry-leading in terms of quality, precision, and security. This will bring us closer to a future where every company, regardless of location, can operate seamlessly on a global scale with our AI,” Kutylowski.

DeepL’s growth

The recent investment comes as the company witnessed significant growth and momentum. 

The company says it has built a customer network of over 100,000 businesses, governments, and other organisations worldwide, including Zendesk, Nikkei, Coursera, and Deutsche Bahn. 

In January 2024, the German company expanded its commitment to the US by opening its first office in the region, as the U.S. has become its third largest market. 

In April 2024, the company launched DeepL Write Pro, a writing assistant specifically designed for business writing, powered by its proprietary LLM technology. 

DeepL also continues to increase the number of languages supported by its platform, with recent additions of Arabic, Korean, and Norwegian, bringing the total number of supported languages to 32.

DeepL: Language AI provider

Founded in 2017 by Jaroslaw Kutylowski, DeepL is a language AI provider for businesses across multiple industries, including manufacturing, legal, retail, healthcare, technology, and professional services. 

DeepL is known for its highly accurate AI translation with DeepL Translator and its AI writing assistant, DeepL Write. These tools help businesses overcome language barriers and improve communication with innovative technology and enterprise-level security.

Unlike general-purpose AI systems, DeepL’s cutting-edge translation and writing solutions rely on specialised AI models specifically tuned for language, resulting in more precise translations for a variety of use cases and a reduced risk of hallucinations and misinformation. 

A 2024 Forrester study revealed that the use of DeepL delivered 345 per cent ROI for global companies, reducing translation time by 90 per cent and driving a 50 per cent workload reduction, underscoring, in our opinion, the power of its platform for businesses looking to grow their revenue and enter new markets faster and at scale.

Over 100,000 businesses, governments, and other organisations and millions of individuals in 63 global markets trust DeepL’s Language AI platform for human-like translation and better writing. 

At present, the company has over 900 employees. 

The investor

Index Ventures is a venture capital firm that helps entrepreneurs turn bold ideas into transformative international businesses. 

Since 1996, the firm claims to have partnered with exceptional entrepreneurs in Europe, the US, and Israel, who are using technology to reshape the world. 

The companies they’ve started include Adyen, Deliveroo, Dropbox, Farfetch, King, Slack, and Supercell.

“DeepL’s runaway success is a bit of an ‘open secret’ in the business community,” says Danny Rimer, who led the investment from Index Ventures. 

“The company is exceptionally thoughtful about creating cutting-edge AI products that deliver real and immediate value to their customers. Jarek and the rest of the DeepL team are equally research and commercially-minded – both of which are key to the company’s success.” Index Ventures is recognised for its investments in highly successful SaaS businesses like Figma, Slack, Wiz, and ScaleAI.”

“At Zendesk we see firsthand the power of infusing AI tools into customer experience, and DeepL’s industry-leading translation is a prime example,” says Adrian McDermott, CTO, of Zendesk. 

“The ability to have accurate AI translation allows companies from startups to large enterprises the ability to scale globally, reaching prospects and existing customers in new ways. Zendesk’s open and flexible platform allows for seamless partnerships, and the tangible results we’ve seen so far from joint customers have us looking forward to continued work with DeepL,” adds McDermott.