US’s TransPerfect acquires Unbabel

The US translation technology company TransPerfect has acquired the Portuguese automated translation company Unbabel for an undisclosed sum.

TransPerfect is the largest translation company in the world with around 8,000 staff spread around various markets and offices in the world, including an office in Portugal since 2019.

Among its clients in Portugal is the airline TAP Air Portugal.

Vasco Pedro, co-founder and CEO of Unbabel, told the online news source ECO in an interview said that the deal was closed after negotiating with three or four potential buyers, and that the choice fell on TransPerfect because it would best serve the Portuguese startup’s mission. Unbabel uses artificial intelligence to speed up translation.

“The type of acquisitions we were making were relatively small compared to this dimension. Thinking about it the other way around allows us to have access to TransPerfect’s sales force, which is gigantic, to have access to a huge number of customers and, therefore, to significantly increase access to scale,” he says.

“The vast majority of employees will move to the new organisation, as well as the founders and CEO who will accompany the transition process for some months,” said Vasco Pedro.

“After completing my involvement in this acquisition, in this project, I will undoubtedly start another company. I’m a builder at heart, I have no plans at this time to be a VC. The world, in fact, is in an incredible phase, with immense opportunities. Basically, this is what I find exciting and spurred the sale – the amount of opportunities that are there at the moment that I would like to get my teeth into”.