Gengo Explained

Gengo
Type:	Translation services via crowdsourcing
Foundation:	December 2008
Founder:	Robert Laing Matthew Romaine
Location City:	Tokyo, Japan and San Mateo, California
Industry:	Translation
Services:	Translation, API

Gengo was a web-based translation platform headquartered in Tokyo.^[1]

History

Gengo was founded in 2008 by Matthew Romaine and Robert Laing. Prior to starting Gengo, Romaine was an audio research engineer and translator with Sony Corporation,^[2] and Laing headed Moresided, a UK-based design agency. Romaine thought of the concept for Gengo due to his experience being asked to translate documents in Japanese and English at Sony, despite originally being hired as an engineer.^{[2] [3]} Prior to its early 2012 rebranding, the company was known as "myGengo."^[4]

In April 2010, the company launched their API, allowing developers to integrate Gengo’s translation platform into third-party applications, web sites and widgets.^{[5] [6]}

Romaine initially served as CTO of the company. He replaced fellow co-founder Robert Laing as CEO in 2015.^[7]

In March 2018, the company launched Gengo AI, an on-demand platform that provides crowdsourced multilingual training data to machine learning developers.

In January 2019, Gengo and Gengo AI were acquired by Lionbridge Technologies^[8] and is being rebranded to Lionbridge AI.

Funding

The company's initial $750,000 seed investment round concluded in September 2010. Investors included Dave McClure of 500 Startups, last.fm founder Felix Miller, Delicious founder Joshua Schachter, Brian Nelson (CEO at Japan-based ValueCommerce), Pageflakes co-founder Christoph Janz, Benjamin Joffe (CEO at China-based Plus Eight Star), and a number of Japanese angel investors. This was followed by a further seed funding round of around $1,000,000 in mid-2011.

A $5.25 million Series A round led by Atomico and joined by 500 Startups ended in September 2011,^[9] followed by an early 2013 Series B investment of $12 million led by Intel Capital.

The company announced its $5.4 million Series C round funding in April 2015.

See also

• designclue

Notes and References

1. Web site: My Gengo Offers Fast, Reliable (And Low Cost!) Language Translation | SF New Tech . 2012-09-26 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20121017213048/http://sfnewtech.com/2010/10/18/my-gengo-offers-fast-reliable-and-low-cost-language-translation/ . 2012-10-17 . "My Gengo Offers Fast, Reliable (And Low Cost!) Language Translation," SF NewTech, October 18, 2010.
2. Web site: Turning Japan's cultural barriers into a startup gold mine. Nikkei Asian Review. en-GB. 2018-06-21.
3. Web site: Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem. www.techinasia.com. en-US. 2018-06-21.
4. Web site: Rebranding Your Startup | Robert Laing . 2013-10-07 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20131126010123/http://robertlaing.com/2012/12/30/rebranding-your-startup/ . 2013-11-26 .
5. News: MyGengo Is Mechanical Turk For Translations. TechCrunch. 2018-07-17. en-US.
6. Web site: myGengo's New API Lets You Plug Human Translation Into Websites And Apps – TechCrunch. techcrunch.com. 29 April 2010 . en-US. 2018-05-03.
7. Web site: Crowdsourced Translation Startup Gengo Raises $5.4M And Changes Its CEO – TechCrunch. techcrunch.com. 22 April 2015 . en-US. 2018-04-05.
8. Web site: Lionbridge Augments Artificial Intelligence Offering Through Acquisition of Gengo and Gengo.ai. 2021-08-09.
9. Web site: Human Translation Platform myGengo Raises $5.25 Million From Atomico, 500 Startups – TechCrunch. techcrunch.com. 27 September 2011 . en-US. 2018-05-03.