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Japanese crowdsourced translation startup Gengo acquired by Lionbridge

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based crowdsourced translation startup Gengo announced on Thursday that it has been acquired by Lionbridge Technologies. Financial terms on the deal have not been disclosed. Gengo was founded back in 2009 by Robert Laing and Matthew Romaine. Laing served the company as CEO in their early days while the position was handed over to Romaine in 2015. They have raised more than $26 million from Atomico, Intel Capital, 500 Startups and other investors. Since its launch back in 1996, Lionbridge has been globally offering translation and localization services, now in 27 countries. They were listed on NASDAQ back in 1997 but then delisted when they were acquired by private equity firm H.I.G. Capital for $360 million. The acquisition at this time is the first for Lionbridge following H.I.G. Capital’s purchase of them in May 2017. Lionbridge says Romaine and the rest of the Gengo team will join Lionbridge post transaction and assume key leadership roles in the company. It appears that Lionbridge will send someone to the board of Gengo’s directors. In 2018, Gengo launched GengoAI, a learning data platform for natural data processing-focused AI development, which has been fully leveraged by their existing…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based crowdsourced translation startup Gengo announced on Thursday that it has been acquired by Lionbridge Technologies. Financial terms on the deal have not been disclosed.

Gengo was founded back in 2009 by Robert Laing and Matthew Romaine. Laing served the company as CEO in their early days while the position was handed over to Romaine in 2015. They have raised more than $26 million from Atomico, Intel Capital, 500 Startups and other investors.

Since its launch back in 1996, Lionbridge has been globally offering translation and localization services, now in 27 countries. They were listed on NASDAQ back in 1997 but then delisted when they were acquired by private equity firm H.I.G. Capital for $360 million. The acquisition at this time is the first for Lionbridge following H.I.G. Capital’s purchase of them in May 2017.

Lionbridge says Romaine and the rest of the Gengo team will join Lionbridge post transaction and assume key leadership roles in the company. It appears that Lionbridge will send someone to the board of Gengo’s directors.

In 2018, Gengo launched GengoAI, a learning data platform for natural data processing-focused AI development, which has been fully leveraged by their existing translation services. The platform is expected to strengthen Lionbridge’s position in the machine learning and content relevance markets.

Tokyo-based Conyac, another Japanese translation startup launched around the same time with Gengo, was acquired for $14 million by Japanese translation service giant Rosetta back in August of 2018. Our readers may also recall that Korean translation tech startup Flitto has raised funding from Colopl Next for market expansion into the Japanese market.

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via PR TIMES
via Lionbridge Technologies

Japanese crowdsourced translation company Gengo closes $5.4M series C round funding

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Tokyo-based crowdsourced translation company Gengo announced earlier this week that it has secured funding worth US$5.4 million in series C round led by Recruit Holdings (TSE:6098) with participation from SBI Investment, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, CrowdWorks (TSE:3900, online crowdsourcing platform), Allied Architects (TSE:6081, internet service company), and Libertad K.K. (business execution consulting firm). The company’s existing investors include Intel Capital, Iris Capital (the investment arm of Orange, a leading French telco), STC Ventures, and Singapore’s Infocomm Investments. The company plans to fund the upscaling of sales and marketing operations in existing and new markets. According to a statement from the company, on announcing this funding result, Gengo co-founder Matthew Romaine will take over the new role of CEO to carry the company into its next phase of growth, with  former CEO Robert Laing shifting his role to Special Projects. See also: Tokyo Office Tour: Gengo’s Matthew Romaine talks translation Translation startup Gengo relocates its home base, has some changes in store Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

gengo-office1

Tokyo-based crowdsourced translation company Gengo announced earlier this week that it has secured funding worth US$5.4 million in series C round led by Recruit Holdings (TSE:6098) with participation from SBI InvestmentMitsubishi UFJ CapitalCrowdWorks (TSE:3900, online crowdsourcing platform), Allied Architects (TSE:6081, internet service company), and Libertad K.K. (business execution consulting firm).

The company’s existing investors include Intel CapitalIris Capital (the investment arm of Orange, a leading French telco), STC Ventures, and Singapore’s Infocomm Investments. The company plans to fund the upscaling of sales and marketing operations in existing and new markets.

According to a statement from the company, on announcing this funding result, Gengo co-founder Matthew Romaine will take over the new role of CEO to carry the company into its next phase of growth, with  former CEO Robert Laing shifting his role to Special Projects.

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Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Translations startups targeting non-tech Japanese SMEs

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This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. Translations startups like Shibuya-headquartered Gengo and anydooR, the Conyac crowdsourced translations operator, took part in Tokyo Business Summit 2014 held late last week at the waterfront Big Sight convention facilities. This year’s event had more tech-related firms showcasing their wares than ever before, including those related to use of the space environment. This was the first time for Gengo to set up a booth at the event, which in the past brought together non- and low-tech Japanese small and medium-sized Enterprises for the most part. Gengo’s marketing manager Nozomi Umenai said, Gengo is expanding to mass market, as exemplified by Tokyo Business Summit participants. We wanted to showcase how easy and affordable it is to use Gengo API. Many of the participants are currently looking to expand overseas business dealings, both outbound as well as inbound (especially those related to the free trade agreement with Australia, as exemplified by meat products, and Trans-Pacific Partnership), so the venue provided a ready pool of Japanese SMEs for contact by translations outfits. Conyac — whose operation is based in Kanda, Tokyo known for…

This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology.


tokyo-business-summit_featuredimage
Image credit: Tokyo Business Summit

Translations startups like Shibuya-headquartered Gengo and anydooR, the Conyac crowdsourced translations operator, took part in Tokyo Business Summit 2014 held late last week at the waterfront Big Sight convention facilities. This year’s event had more tech-related firms showcasing their wares than ever before, including those related to use of the space environment.

This was the first time for Gengo to set up a booth at the event, which in the past brought together non- and low-tech Japanese small and medium-sized Enterprises for the most part. Gengo’s marketing manager Nozomi Umenai said,

Gengo is expanding to mass market, as exemplified by Tokyo Business Summit participants. We wanted to showcase how easy and affordable it is to use Gengo API.

Many of the participants are currently looking to expand overseas business dealings, both outbound as well as inbound (especially those related to the free trade agreement with Australia, as exemplified by meat products, and Trans-Pacific Partnership), so the venue provided a ready pool of Japanese SMEs for contact by translations outfits.

Conyac — whose operation is based in Kanda, Tokyo known for its many low-tech SMEs — also had a booth out at the event, which was held for the 28th time since 1988.

The Conyac booth staff also noted,

We just released a website translation management tool called ‘Conyac Front‘ last month. At the summit, we’re looking for the testers for the Conyac Front(β).

Other firms of interest this year were those focused on Business Continuity Planning (BCP) and other emergency-related businesses.

Further info on Tokyo Business Summit is available at http://www.business-summit.jp/tbs/

Tokyo Office Tour: Gengo’s Matthew Romaine talks translation

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Back in July we mentioned that Tokyo-based translation startup Gengo would be relocating its head office to Shibuya. Today we were lucky enough to have the company’s CTO Matthew Romaine give us a brief tour of the place, as well as provide some brief updates on how business is going recently. So far Gengo has nearly 9000 translators translating content into 35 languages for both retail and enterprise customers. And while about 30 people out of their current 45 total staffers are located in the Tokyo office, Gengo has 12 people in their US office and makes use of a video ‘wormhole’ to keep in touch with them [1]. Since I visited the office just this morning, I even had a chance to chat with some Gengo folks in San Mateo. For a startup specializing in harnessing the power of remote workers, it’s not really surprising that they also appear to have no serious difficulties with working virtually within the company too. The Bridge: So how are things going here at Gengo these days? Matthew: Since we launched we have done over 120 million words of translation in the past four or five years that we have been around. And…

Back in July we mentioned that Tokyo-based translation startup Gengo would be relocating its head office to Shibuya. Today we were lucky enough to have the company’s CTO Matthew Romaine give us a brief tour of the place, as well as provide some brief updates on how business is going recently.

So far Gengo has nearly 9000 translators translating content into 35 languages for both retail and enterprise customers. And while about 30 people out of their current 45 total staffers are located in the Tokyo office, Gengo has 12 people in their US office and makes use of a video ‘wormhole’ to keep in touch with them [1]. Since I visited the office just this morning, I even had a chance to chat with some Gengo folks in San Mateo. For a startup specializing in harnessing the power of remote workers, it’s not really surprising that they also appear to have no serious difficulties with working virtually within the company too.

The Bridge: So how are things going here at Gengo these days?

Gengo meeting room
Gengo meeting room

Matthew: Since we launched we have done over 120 million words of translation in the past four or five years that we have been around. And every year it is more and more. And we’re doing a few million words a week now, so it’s quite exciting. Our translator pool is growing, and we’re finding interesting new ways of working with them. They love the community aspect of Gengo, and they love the tools and learning opportunities that we provide them.

We’ve been making PDFs and educational materials, because 70% to 80% of our translators are not professionals, but they are bilingual and able to pass our tests. So we have put together some materials on how to use time more efficiently, how to deal with new words in a language – because languages are always changing – and so we have a team that’s focused on creating those kinds of materials, and building that sense of community with our translators.

The Bridge: Who is a typical Gengo translator?

Matthew: It’s pretty spread out. It’s everyone from very smart college students learning a new language to retired professional translators who have a little spare time. In fact, we’re currently doing a series on our translators, the ones willing to be a little more public, on our blog. You’ll meet one translator in Africa, one in the Middle East, really all over the world. […] We plan to introduce more and more of them over time. We definitely are focused a lot on our translators because they are so core to our platform.

The Bridge: And what’s your main focus these days?

Matthew: We raised out series B funding earlier this year, so we’re currently focused on improving the product, growing the team, and building sales. […] We’re very excited about the opportunities in this space. I think it’s great that some other startups or businesses in similar industries have been raising funds very successfully, which is great for us too, because it helps build awareness and validation.

Actually yesterday, I was at an event for a crowdsourcing industry group. Crowdsourcing itself as a concept and a business is starting to build awareness, we’re obviously a very specific vertical, but there are others like Odesk, Freelancer.com, and here in Japan we have Crowdworks, Lancers, Realworld. […] And so the industry’s body’s plan is to band together to present proposals to ministries and government bodies to build valid use cases because past precedent is so important in Japan. So getting good examples of success stories to show big companies, then it’s possible to show where crowdsourcing can add value to your company.

The Bridge: Thanks Matthew!

Another meeting room
Another meeting room
Another meeting room
Another meeting room
Basketball Jones!
Basketball Jones!
Gengo sofa!
Gengo sofa!
Morning stand-up meeting
Morning stand-up meeting
Swag corner, to help promote other startups around town
Swag corner, to help promote other startups around town
Wormhole camera
Wormhole camera
Matt talking to US team through the wormhole
Matt talking to US team through the wormhole

  1. Gengo has some members in Europe and China as well.  ↩

Translation startup Gengo relocates its home base, has some changes in store

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Tokyo-based translation startup Gengo has recently relocated its head office to Shibuya, a district where many Japanese startups are based. The company held a press conference today to unveil how they expect to evolve the platform one step further. CEO Robert Laing, CTO Matthew Romaine, and VP of product management Hiroto Tokusei were all present at the conference, where they proudly introduced their new office where 26 people from 12 countries are working to give their users a better experience. In the presentation, the startup revealed that they are currently working on launching a new interface, which will probably go live next month. For crowdsourced workers who typically translate large volume of texts, the startup will provide an interface that helps you use the same terminology in an entire document and check for spelling or grammatical errors. For clients who order translation requests, the platform will be able to accept business document file formats such as Microsoft Word, Excel, etc., as well as plain text formats. The startup’s competitor Conyac also recently rolled out this feature on its platform back in February. To date, the service has been used to hire more than 8,000 crowdsourced workers, serving translation needs in…

gengo-office1

Tokyo-based translation startup Gengo has recently relocated its head office to Shibuya, a district where many Japanese startups are based. The company held a press conference today to unveil how they expect to evolve the platform one step further.

CEO Robert Laing, CTO Matthew Romaine, and VP of product management Hiroto Tokusei were all present at the conference, where they proudly introduced their new office where 26 people from 12 countries are working to give their users a better experience.

hiroto-robert-matthew
From the left: VP Hiroto Tokusei, CEO Robert Laing, CTO Matthew Romaine

In the presentation, the startup revealed that they are currently working on launching a new interface, which will probably go live next month. For crowdsourced workers who typically translate large volume of texts, the startup will provide an interface that helps you use the same terminology in an entire document and check for spelling or grammatical errors. For clients who order translation requests, the platform will be able to accept business document file formats such as Microsoft Word, Excel, etc., as well as plain text formats. The startup’s competitor Conyac also recently rolled out this feature on its platform back in February.

gengo-office2
The Gengo team at its new office in Shibuya

To date, the service has been used to hire more than 8,000 crowdsourced workers, serving translation needs in 38 languages. In the last three months, they’ve transacted more than 22 million translation requests from clients in Japan and around the rest of the world. By refining the service’s interface, they hope to transact more translation orders and enhance their revenue stream.

request-growth
Annual growth of translation orders using Gengo

Gengo originally launched back in late 2008, at that time under the name MyGengo. In 2010, the startup secured seed funding of $750,000 from 500 Startups, Last.fm co-founder Felix Miller, Delicious founder Joshua Schachter, and ex-Value Commerce CEO Brian Nelson. Subsequently, it received $5.25 million in a series A investment round from Atomico and 500 Startups. And then this year, it also received series B funding worth $12 million from Intel Capital (US), Atomico (UK), Iris Capital (France), Infocomm Investments (Singapore), STC Ventures (Saudi Arabia), and NTT Docomo Ventures (Japan).