AI Translation Startup DeepL Valued at $2 Billion USD

German translation company DeepL announced on Wednesday that it has attracted $300 million in investment in a funding round, with a valuation of $2 billion, as interest in generative AI tools continues to surge.

This Cologne-based company stated in a statement that this funding round led by Index Ventures will support DeepL's mission to "change the way global businesses communicate with each other."

According to the business daily Handelsblatt, this new valuation makes DeepL the largest AI startup in Germany.

DeepL is known for its AI-supported online translation service, which supports 32 languages.

In addition to providing free services for short texts, DeepL also offers paid translation software for enterprises and has attracted over 100,000 paying customers.

Launched in 2017, DeepL was initially seen as a strong competitor to Google Translate, but it has since faced challenges from giants like OpenAI's ChatGPT in the explosive growth of generative AI.

"This investment has been the most transformative year for DeepL so far," said Jaroslaw Kutylowski, founder and CEO of DeepL, in a statement. "It proves the crucial role our AI language technology plays in overcoming the complex language challenges faced by global organizations today."

ChatGPT emerged in 2022 with its human-like abilities that have amazed the world—from digesting complex texts or composing poetry in seconds to passing medical exams.

Other examples of generative AI include DALL-E and Midjourney, which can generate images, while other tools can create sound based on simple inputs in everyday language.