Apr 21, 2015

Gengo Announces Series C Round of $5.4 Million

TOKYO, Japan, April 22, 2015 — Gengo®, a global crowdsourced translation platform, closed a Series C fundraising round of US$5.4M, led by Japan-based company Recruit Holdings and with participation from SBI Investments, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, CrowdWorks, Allied Architects and Libertad K.K. Also contributing are current investors Intel Capital, Iris Capital Management, STC Ventures Fund Company and Infocomm Investments. The company’s funding will be used to scale sales and marketing operations in existing and new markets.

With over 15,000 tested, skilled translators worldwide working on its platform, Gengo helps companies like TripAdvisor, Rakuten and more sell internationally, translating massive volumes of web content at scale for diverse industries via API. Currently, Gengo is the only translation company of its kind providing full transparency into operations and quality metrics through its Open Data Initiative.

In addition to closing a new round of funding, Gengo co-founder Matthew Romaine will take on the new role of CEO to carry the company into its next phase of growth. Former CEO Robert Laing will shift his role to Special Projects.

“I’m proud to lead the company into this new phase of our growth,” said Romaine. “Robert has done an outstanding job leading Gengo to become a worldwide leader in crowdsourced translation, with incredibly strong operations, engineering and branding. We will continue to focus on creating new core technologies like translation memory for our platform that will help customers grow globally.”

About Gengo

Gengo is a global, people-powered translation platform enabling everyone to read and publish across languages with one click. Gengo’s unique platform consists of a diverse and growing community of more than 15,000 qualified translators from 114 countries working across 37 languages and 63 language pairs. The professional human translation platform represents a huge leap in quality compared to machine translation, while enjoying faster delivery times than traditional service providers. Through its web offering and open API, Gengo enables businesses of any size to quickly and easily connect with a global audience at scale. Clients and partners include TripAdvisor, Rakuten and The Huffington Post. Founded in 2008, Gengo is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan with an office in Silicon Valley. For more information: https://gengo.com

About Recruit Holdings

Recruit Holdings is a Japanese classified advertisement, publication and human resources company. Through a wide range of services, Recruit Holdings is delivering new discoveries and opportunities to users with information in such fields as employment, education, housing, marriage, child care, travel, cars, hobbies and lifestyle. For more information: http://www.recruit-rgf.com/

About SBI Investment

SBI Investment is the core company in the SBI Group’s Asset Management Business. As one of Japan’s leading venture capital firms, SBI Investment’s management of venture capital funds is guided by their mission to become a leader in the creation and cultivation of key industries for the 21st century. For more information: http://www.sbigroup.co.jp/english/

About Mitsubishi UFJ Capital

Formed in 2005, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital brings unrivaled insight and access to overseas companies and investors targeting the Japanese market. They have financed more than 1,000 companies, more than 290 of which have gone public. For more information: http://www.mucap.co.jp/

About CrowdWorks

CrowdWorks is one of the biggest crowdsourcing services in Japan, and recently went public. Registered developers and designers can apply to more than 70 kinds of projects and tasks, from development of iOS and Android apps, to website and logo designs. CrowdWorks is used by over 25,000 companies, including Japanese ministries and publicly traded companies. For more information: http://crowdworks.jp/

About Libertad K.K.

With unique core growth sector focus and consumer Internet and software sector knowledge, Libertad is a Tokyo-based business strategy, M&A and business execution consulting team focused on IT and media. A multicultural team with broad industry experience ranging from technology, marketing and investment banking, Libertad has experience providing acceleration consulting services to leading global and Asian TMT companies. For more information: http://www.libertadkk.com/

SOURCE: Gengo

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