science

Unbabel

Unbabel is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Unbabel rather than just read about it. In short: Unbabel was an artificial intelligence-powered human translation platform. The company had headquarters in Lisbon, Portugal, and San Francisco, California.

Key takeaways

Unbabel belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Unbabel to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Unbabel from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Unbabel was an artificial intelligence-powered human translation platform. The company had headquarters in Lisbon, Portugal, and San Francisco, California. It had been owned by American translation and language services company TransPerfect since August 2025. Unbabel combined Neural Machine Translation with machine learning and a crowdsourced model to differentiate itself from other translation service providers. The name Unbabel is derived from the biblical story of Babel. The company was focused on the translation of customer service communications. Unbabel was declared bankrupted by Tribunal Judicial da Comarca de Lisboa in March, 10th, 2026.

History Unbabel was founded in August 2013 by Vasco Pedro, João Graça, Sofia Pessanha, Bruno Silva, and Hugo Silva and was incubated by Y Combinator in late 2014. The company was officially launched in March 2014. In May 2014, Unbabel raised a $1.5 million Seed round to support the growth and development of its translation platform, receiving investment from prominent venture capital firms and business angels including Google Ventures, Matrix Partners, Caixa Capital, Faber Ventures, IDG Ventures, Digital Garage, Shilling Capital Partners, Wefunder, FundersClub, Elad Gil and Raymond Tonsing. In early 2015, Unbabel was recognized as one of Y Combinator's fastest growing Seed stage companies. In late 2016, Unbabel raised $5 million from lead investors Notion Capital and Caixa Capital. In early 2018, Unbabel raised $23 million in Series B funding, led by Scale Venture Partners and Notion Capital, bringing its total venture capital funding to $31.2 million. The company is privately held. On September 24 2019, Unbabel raised $60 million in Series C funding to further refine its AI+human translation platform. The latest funding round was led by Point72 Ventures with participation from e.ventures, Greycroft, Indico Capital Partners and existing investors, bringing its total funding to $91 million. After its turnover fell by nearly 50 percent in the space of a year, Unbabel was sold to American translation and language services company TransPerfect in August 2025 for a "relatively low value", resulting in a "total loss" for many investors.

In the United States In August 2019 Unbabel opened a research lab in Pittsburgh, PA. The lab is led by U.S. researcher Alon Lavie. Its customers include easyJet, Booking.com, Rovio Entertainment, Under Armour, Pinterest, and Facebook.

References

External links Official website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Unbabel

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Unbabel claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Unbabel before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Unbabel ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Unbabel

In research: Unbabel appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Unbabel in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Unbabel is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Artificial intelligence companies, Freelance marketplace websites, Online marketplaces of Portugal, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Unbabel outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Unbabel” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Unbabel in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Unbabel means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Unbabel out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Unbabel in simple terms?

Unbabel was an artificial intelligence-powered human translation platform. The company had headquarters in Lisbon, Portugal, and San Francisco, California.

Why does Unbabel matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Unbabel?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Unbabel.