Smartling Secures US$4 Million in First Funding Round Led by Venrock
Smartling, Inc., a provider of real-time, crowdsourced translations for Internet based businesses, announced today that it has secured a US$ 4 million Series A round of investment, led by Venrock. The round also included funding from US Venture Partners, First Round Capital and several angel investors. The company will use the funding to expand its operations and support product development.
New York (PRWEB) March 18, 2010
Smartling (http://www. smartling. com), Inc., a provider of real-time, crowdsourced translations for Internet based businesses, announced today that it has secured a US$ 4 million Series A round of investment, led by Venrock (http://www. venrock. com). The round also included funding from US Venture Partners (http://www. usvp. com), First Round Capital (http://www. firstround. com) and several angel investors. The company will use the funding to expand its operations and support product development.
Founded in 2009, Smartling offers accurate, quick, and affordable online translations to Internet based businesses. The company combines high-quality translations, crowdsourcing tools, and software services to create localized Websites in a fraction of the time and costs of traditional localization methods. Using crowdsourcing technology, Smartling empowers companies to rapidly reach new customers in their native tongue.
“We build companies that shape the future using smart technology,” said David Pakman, Partner at Venrock. “Looking at the company’s leadership, vision, and innovative product, Smartling is poised to transform the way companies do business on the Internet. We believe that Smartling has tremendous market potential.”
Industry surveys have shown that people are more likely to buy products and services in their native language. More than 70 percent of the Internet users do not speak English. These are unexplored market opportunities, especially for small to medium size businesses. Costs have often prevented companies to reach non-English speaking customers. Smartling provides businesses with an easy and affordable way to customize their sites to attract customers in multiple languages.
“We are very pleased to be working with this esteemed group of investors. Their experience in building successful Internet-based companies will accelerate our business growth,” stated Jack Welde (http://www. linkedin. com/in/jackwelde), CEO of Smartling. “Our vision is to democratize translations and explore new frontiers by removing language barriers on the Web. Smartling helps businesses to better use their Websites by speaking to customers in their native language in real time.”
About Venrock
Venrock is a premier venture capital firm with offices in Palo Alto, New York, Cambridge, MA, and Israel. Originally established as the venture capital arm of the Rockefeller family, Venrock continues the eight-decade tradition of partnering with entrepreneurs to establish successful, enduring companies. Having invested $2.5 billion in nearly 450 companies resulting in more than 120 IPOs in 41 years, Venrock’s investment returns place it among the top tier venture capital firms that have achieved consistently superior performance. With a primary focus on technology, healthcare, and energy, portfolio companies have included Adify, Adnexus Therapeutics, Apple Computer, athenahealth, Centocor, Check Point Software, DoubleClick, Gilead Sciences, Idec Pharmaceuticals, Illumina, Intel, Ironwood, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Sirna Therapeutics, StrataCom, and Vontu. For more information, please visit Venrock’s website at http://www. venrock. com (http://www. venrock. com).
About First Round Capital First Round Capital is a seed-stage venture capital firm dedicated to helping talented entrepreneurs build remarkable companies. First Round Capital typically funds pre-revenue companies - and often provides a company's first outside capital. As former entrepreneurs, the partners at First Round understand the challenges of launching a new enterprise, and strive to offer insight and expertise that are as valuable as its venture capital. The firm invests nationally with offices in San Francisco, Philadelphia and New York City.
About U. S. Venture Partners
U. S. Venture Partners (USVP) is a leading Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm, helping
Entrepreneurs build world-class companies since 1981. USVP focuses on early stage
Opportunities in sectors where the Partners have the domain expertise, operating experience and
Network of relationships to contribute to the success of an enterprise. Currently, the firm invests
In digital communications, network systems, consumer and business services, media,
Semiconductors, clean technologies, biopharmaceuticals and medical devices. http://www. usvp. com (http://www. usvp. com)
About Smartling
Founded in 2009 in New York, Smartling Inc., provides Internet based businesses with affordable, real-time, crowdsourced and professional website translations. The Smartling Translation Delivery Network (TDN) combines high-quality translations and technology automation to provide businesses with localized Websites quickly and affordably. Smartling empowers companies to quickly reach new markets in their native tongue. For more information, please see http://www. smartling. com (http://www. smartling. com).
Contact:
Katja Schroeder
(917) 607-6567
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