German AI-driven translator DeepL valued at $2 billion

BERLIN (Reuters) - German artificial intelligence (AI)-driven translation startup DeepL was valued at $2 billion in a round led by investor Index Ventures, the company said on Wednesday.

This makes DeepL Germany's most valued AI company, according to business daily Handelsblatt.

The firm also announced a $300 million investment to fund research and product innovation, as well as to double down on the global market expansion and to increase hiring.

"We're approaching an inflection point in the AI boom where businesses who are racing to adopt the technology begin to discern between hype versus solutions that are secure and actually solve real problems in their business," said DeepL founder and CEO Jarek Kutylowski.

Kutylowski, a former Linguee technology head, founded DeepL in 2018, which by now provides high-quality business translation services to more than 100,000 companies, including Nikkei, Coursera, and Deutsche Bahn.

(Reporting by Andrey Sychev; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)