• Unbabel

  Participated · Equity · Dec 2023

  Unbabel offers AI-supported translation services and operates a LangOps platform that combines machine translation with human language experts. Founded in Lisbon in 2013 by Vasco Pedro (CEO), the company has expanded internationally with offices in Portugal, the United States (San Francisco), the United Kingdom, Romania, the Philippines, Germany, Bulgaria and Israel. Its recent strategy includes acquisitions—last year it bought German EVS Translations and Israeli Bablic—to bolster capabilities and global reach. The company calls itself a scaleup and emphasizes making organizations operate in multiple languages simultaneously. Unbabel is focused on growing its LangOps platform and pursuing further international expansion while strengthening its path to profitability. The firm says the new capital will support global growth, acquisitions and efforts to scale toward profitability. Unbabel offers a translation-as-a-service platform that combines machine translation speed with human-in-the-loop edits from a global community of translators. The company says it has more than 100k registered translators and 200+ full-time employees, and serves over 150 enterprise customers including Facebook, Microsoft, Booking.com and easyJet. It processes more than 1,000,000 customer service messages per month, a fivefold increase since 2018, and touts cost savings and improved customer satisfaction for clients. Unbabel reports its strongest quarter yet in revenue growth, though it is not disclosing figures. The firm is investing in AI improvements and has announced an AI research lab in Pittsburgh. Planned use of new funding includes ramping up growth in the US, Europe and Asia and enhancing its AI capabilities. Unbabel offers a proprietary platform that combines natural language processing, neural machine translation, quality-estimation algorithms and a global network of 55,000 translators to deliver AI-powered human translations at scale. The company exposes APIs and dedicated integrations (Salesforce, Zendesk, WordPress, Mailchimp and others) to plug into customers' content-creation, translation and communication workflows. Customers named in the article include Booking.com, Pinterest, Trello, Vimeo, SoundCloud, Evernote and many other large online and consumer brands. Led by CEO and co-founder Vasco Pedro, Unbabel graduated from Y Combinator’s 2014 Winter Batch. The company announced it raised $23M in new funding and said it will use the proceeds for international expansion and further product development. No revenue or user metrics were disclosed in the article. Unbabel’s core product is the Unbabel Language Engine, a Translation-as-a-Service platform that blends machine translation with crowdsourced human post‑editing. The platform combines natural language processing, artificial intelligence and quality-estimation algorithms with a global network of 40,000 human post‑editors. Unbabel targets conversational content such as email and chat and offers APIs plus dedicated integrations for Zendesk and Salesforce to enable multilingual customer support. The company cites early customer traction with Pinterest, Microsoft and Skyscanner and is a graduate of Y Combinator’s 2014 Winter Batch. Unbabel plans to use recent funding to build out and scale the Unbabel Language Engine and to further reduce the cost of human translation. The company was founded in August 2013 and has offices in Lisbon and San Francisco. Unbabel pairs automated machine translation with human editors who refine output to deliver faster, affordable translations. Customers send content via email, online order or the Unbabel API; the content is automatically translated and then refined by two human editors before being returned. The company charges $0.02 per word (with bulk discounts) and reports about 160 paying customers. Four months after launching, Unbabel was growing roughly 15% a week in sales and 12% a week in the number of editors on its platform. Editors earn $8 and anyone proficient in two or more languages can become an editor; the company is rolling out Marvin, an automated feedback tool to help editors improve and become paid. Unbabel also launched a beta Zendesk plugin to enable customer-service reps to support customers in any language. The company says the new funding will be used to expand engineering and marketing to grow its customer base and meet demand.

• Appentra

  Participated · Equity · Sep 2023

  Codee develops a performance-oriented code inspection and testing platform that detects bottlenecks early in the software development life cycle and suggests fixes through an integrated Coding Assistant. Built on a proprietary engine derived from the LLVM Intermediate Representation, the platform extracts conceptual features from source code to enforce rules defined in its Open Catalog of Best Practices for Performance. Initial validation in C on x86 has demonstrated up to an 18× speed-up for compute-intensive workloads using Intel oneAPI tools. The company is now expanding language coverage to C++ and Fortran and broadening hardware support to Arm and RISC-V ecosystems. Newly secured capital will fund customer-base expansion and continued product development. To date, the company has attracted institutional backing from several Spanish and European investors, reinforcing its position in the performance-engineering software market.

• AbolerIS Pharma

  Led · Series A · Sep 2023

  AbolerIS Pharma is a Belgian biopharmaceutical company focused on immunotherapies for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Its lead program is a monoclonal antibody that targets the novel receptor CD45RC with the goal of restoring immune tolerance. The company aims for durable remissions and therapies with fewer side effects compared with current immunosuppressive options. Cofounders Dr. Ignacio Anegon and Dr. Carole Guillonneau and a team of experienced immunology scientists lead the research. The financing announced will be used to accelerate the clinical development of the antibody and advance it toward becoming a potential new treatment standard for conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis.

• inari

  Led · Seed · Sep 2023

  Founded in 2017 in Barcelona, Inari develops modern, cloud-native platforms that handle policy administration, underwriting dashboards and bordereaux management for insurers, reinsurers, MGAs and Lloyd’s Syndicates. Its fully managed, API-enabled software supports the entire policy lifecycle while integrating with external systems to improve data accuracy and operational efficiency. Proprietary data-ingestion technology underpins digital-first underwriting and risk management, driving cost reductions for clients. The company serves a global customer base across Europe, the London and Lloyd’s markets, the United States, Asia and Bermuda. Current solutions can be deployed as standalone modules or integrated alongside existing infrastructure, giving clients flexible implementation options. Proceeds from its latest financing will be used to expand teams in Barcelona and London, add new product features and widen the firm’s geographic footprint. No revenue, user or other operating metrics were disclosed in the article.

• Build38

  Participated · Series A · Feb 2023

  Build38 offers mobile application protection solutions centered on its Trusted Application Kit (T.A.K), which integrates into Android and iOS apps during development and provides layered security controls stronger than native platform mechanisms. Its platform includes endpoint protection, mobile application firewalls, and AI-powered threat intelligence aimed at fraud and attack prevention. The company serves enterprises across financial services, digital identity, public transport, automotive, and healthcare, and lists customers such as Verimi, Netcetera, Chang’an Auto, and Republic Bank of Ghana. Build38 says it enables organizations to create self-defending mobile apps and meet data-security compliance requirements (PCI, eIDAS, SSI, MPoC, and others). Founded in 2019, the company operates from Munich with additional offices in Barcelona and Singapore. Build38 develops cybersecurity solutions focused on protecting mobile applications and enabling passwordless authentication. The company is headquartered in Munich, with its development team in Barcelona and an additional office in Singapore. Recognized by Gartner as a provider since 2019, Build38 serves an international client base across sectors including financial services, automotive and ticketing. The startup plans to prioritize development of new product functionalities and to expand into new segments such as health and digital identity. The company’s shareholder base included GD Ventures (Giesecke+Devrient Group’s VC vehicle) and the founding team, which includes three Spanish co‑founders.

No current team members are available.