Smartcat Secures $43M—Is AI Finally Ready to Replace Human Translators?

Smartcat, an AI-powered translation platform, has secured $43 million in a Series C funding round led by Left Lane Capital, bringing its total funding to $70 million. With an impressive client roster that includes over 1,000 corporate customers — 20% of which are Fortune 500 companies — Smartcat is positioning itself as a major player in the rapidly growing AI translation market. Founded in 2016 by Ivan Smolnikov, Smartcat was born out of Smolnikov’s desire to transform the traditional, often cumbersome, translation agency model. Having previously served as a physicist at the Russian Academy of Sciences and later co-founding ABBYY LS, Smolnikov’s background in both science and entrepreneurship laid the groundwork for what Smartcat would become. "The conventional translation agen