Smartling
Smartling is an AI-powered translation management system founded in 2009 by Jack Welde and Andrey Akselrod.
Profile
Cloud-based translation management platform using AI, machine translation, and human linguists to help enterprises localize content across digital products and marketing at scale.
Smartling is an AI-powered translation management system founded in 2009 by Jack Welde and Andrey Akselrod. Based in New York, the company has built an enterprise cloud platform combining machine translation, human linguists, and increasingly sophisticated AI capabilities to help large organizations localize content at scale. The platform integrates with 50+ enterprise tools (CMSs, code repositories, design software) and has processed billions of words across more than 450 languages.
Smartling reported $39.7 million in annual revenue in 2024—a 91% year-over-year increase—and serves approximately 500 customers including IHG Hotels, Shopify, Pinterest, State Farm, British Airways, and Lyft. CEO Bryan Murphy, appointed in April 2022, oversees a team of 296 employees plus a global network of 10,000 contracted translators. The company raised $160 million from Battery Ventures in late 2021, bringing total funding to $226.7 million.
In 2025, Smartling experienced a 218% surge in AI and AI-human translation volumes as enterprises moved from experimentation to production use, with customers achieving triple output at 60% lower costs and 6x faster turnaround. The company was recognized by Fast Company in early 2025 as one of only 10 most innovative companies in business services. Smartling's strategic direction centers on enterprise AI adoption, with recent product launches including AI Image Translation, Language Adaptation for regional variants, and LQA Agent (linguistic quality assessment automation) scheduled for April 2026.
Who buys this
- Global e-commerce and retail companies managing multilingual product catalogs and customer experiences
- Technology and SaaS companies localizing software interfaces, documentation, and marketing content
- Hospitality and travel companies translating customer-facing websites and marketing across 170+ countries
- Enterprise software and CRM vendors scaling localization workflows across product suites
- Healthcare and regulated industries requiring compliance-grade translation with audit trails
Publicly disclosed clients
- IHG Hotels & Resorts
- Shopify
- British Airways
- Lyft
- State Farm
- IBM
Strengths and what to watch
Strengths
- 218% YoY growth in AI translation volume in 2025 demonstrates strong product-market fit as enterprises move to production AI-powered localization
- Large installed base (500 customers, $39.7M ARR in 2024) with high ACV ($79.4K) and established relationships with marquee global brands
- Comprehensive 50+ pre-built integrations (Adobe, Figma, WordPress, Drupal, Shopify, Salesforce, ServiceNow) reduce customer implementation friction and expand use cases
Watch for
- Customer churn rate of 12% is moderate but worth tracking as AI automation reduces translation labor demand and margins may compress as competitors commoditize AI translation
- Dependency on enterprise spending cycles; 2024 86% YoY growth in prior year suggests maturing TAM and potential deceleration as market saturates among largest global brands
- Growing AI quality concerns: hallucination detection and LQA Agent (still in beta) indicate ongoing challenges with LLM translation reliability at enterprise scale—quality failures could damage brand trust
Recent moves
Key Information
- Industry
- NLP
- Founded
- 2009
- Headquarters
- New York
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Smartling?
Smartling is a cloud-based translation management platform founded in 2009 combining AI, machine translation, and human linguists. It helps enterprises localize content across digital products and marketing at scale. The platform serves 500+ customers including Shopify, Pinterest, and British Airways, processing billions of words.
How does Smartling help with localization?
Smartling integrates with 50+ enterprise tools including CMSs, design software, and code repositories. Content flows through AI translation and human review workflows. The platform manages localization across e-commerce, SaaS, hospitality, and regulated industries globally using a network of 10,000 contracted translators.
What are Smartling's AI translation capabilities?
In 2025, Smartling saw 218% growth in AI translation volume as customers moved to production use. They achieved triple output at 60% lower costs with 6x faster turnaround. Recent product launches include AI Image Translation, Language Adaptation for regional variants, and LQA Agent for automated quality assessment.
Which tools integrate with Smartling?
Smartling offers 50+ pre-built integrations with major platforms including Adobe Creative Suite, Figma, WordPress, Drupal, Shopify, Salesforce, and ServiceNow. These integrations reduce implementation time significantly and expand localization capabilities across design tools, content management systems, e-commerce platforms, and CRM workflows for global distributed teams.
How much does Smartling cost?
Smartling's average customer value is $79.4K annually. Specific pricing varies by language pairs, volume, and features negotiated with enterprise customers. The platform delivers ROI through 60% cost reduction and 6x faster turnaround versus traditional translation, with many customers achieving triple output with lower overall spend.
Does Smartling work for enterprises?
Yes. Smartling serves 500+ enterprise customers including Shopify, Pinterest, State Farm, and British Airways. In 2024, the company reported $39.7M revenue (91% growth) and 218% AI volume growth in 2025. However, prospective customers should note a 12% churn rate and ongoing AI quality concerns around hallucination detection.
How Smartling compares
Direct head-to-head against 3 competitors. Picked by 7wData.
Smartling
- Positioning
- Cloud-based translation management platform using AI, machine translation, and human linguists to help enterprises localize content across digital products and marketing at scale.
- Customer segments
- Global e-commerce and retail companies managing multilingual product catalogs and customer experiences
- Strengths
- 218% YoY growth in AI translation volume in 2025 demonstrates strong product-market fit as enterprises move to production AI-powered localization
- Watch for
- Customer churn rate of 12% is moderate but worth tracking as AI automation reduces translation labor demand and margins may compress as competitors commoditize AI translation
- Recent moves
- Smartling Reports 218% Growth in AI Translation Volume in 2025
Phrase
- Positioning
- Forrester Wave Leader for enterprise localization teams where content fragmentation across strings, documents, and websites is the core cost problem.
- Customer segments
- Enterprise localization teams, project managers, and LSPs; buyer is the localization program owner at mid-to-large companies.
- Strengths
- Configurable workflows spanning software strings, documents, websites, and audio-visual content under one shared translation memory and terminology base.
- Watch for
- Customers report opaque volume caps, quota resets with no rollover, surprise invoice spikes, and cancellation requests ignored for months.
- Recent moves
- December 2025: Phrase embedded Welocalize OPAL agentic tooling natively into the platform for autonomous multilingual content workflows.
Lokalise
- Positioning
- Developer-first alternative to Smartling; wins on agility and integrations but loses on enterprise governance and compliance depth.
- Customer segments
- Product and engineering teams at growth-stage SaaS companies; developer-led localization buyers needing CI/CD integration.
- Strengths
- 60-plus native integrations including Figma and Adobe XD enabling design-to-translation workflows without leaving the product toolchain.
- Watch for
- Contracts include 90-day cancellation notice and documented cases of auto-renewal clauses silently altered during re-contracting.
- Recent moves
- February 2026: Custom AI Profiles exited beta and MCP server integration launched enabling connections to third-party automation tools.
RWS
- Positioning
- Desktop-first TMS with deep translation memory and compliance tooling targeting regulated industries and large language service providers.
- Customer segments
- Large enterprises, pharma, legal, and government buyers; professional translators needing translation-memory-centric desktop CAT workflows.
- Strengths
- Proprietary translation memory combined with 13 acquisitions of linguistic data covering regulated and APAC patent translation markets.
- Watch for
- Contractor payment delays of up to 3 months reported in October 2025 and a 63% profit collapse signal vendor stability risk.
- Recent moves
- June 2025: RWS acquired Papercup AI dubbing technology to target the $1B AI dubbing market via Trados integration.
Sources
- www.smartling.com — Core product capabilities, platform integrations, target customers including DoorDash, IHG, Reddit, Pinterest, HubSpot
- getlatka.com — $39.7M ARR in 2024 (91% YoY growth), $20.8M in 2023, 500 customers, $79.4K ACV, 12% churn, 296 employees
- slator.com — $160M Battery Ventures funding round December 2021, total funding of $223M, market leadership position in translation industry
- www.smartling.com — 218% YoY AI translation growth in 2025, customer outcomes (triple output, 60% cost reduction, 6x faster), CEO Bryan Murphy quote, LQA Agent April 2026 launch
- www.smartling.com — Fast Company recognition as one of 10 most innovative companies in business services category 2025
- www.smartling.com — Bryan Murphy appointed CEO April 2022 with 20+ years SaaS/eCommerce experience
- www.glassdoor.com — Employee sentiment: 4.5/5 rating, 88% would recommend, positive culture/work-life balance scores, 83% positive business outlook