Straker Translations in NZ Herald: Five Kiwi tech startups to watch in 2020
Straker Translations featured in a New Zealand Herald article on Five Kiwi tech startups to watch in 2020.
The newspaper ranked Straker at No. 3:
Straker Translations
This is no spring chicken startup - the company was founded by former paratrooper Grant Straker and his wife Merryn in 1999.
But since it listed on the ASX in 2018, the Auckland and Gisborne-based Straker Translations has turbocharged its growth by buying rivals in Ireland, Spain, Germany and the US.
While free translation services abound - including Google Translate - Straker seeks to stay ahead of the pack by employing an army of 13,000 contract humans to refine raw results from AI technology.
For 2019, Straker was breakeven on revenue that rose 44 per cent to $24.6m.
But most significantly, it broke into a whole new market in November as it inked a $1m deal with a major US TV production studio - which it's billed as the first of its type.
Co-founder and chief executive Grant Straker wouldn't name the new customer, but says his company's services will be used for adding subtitles (and via a partner, dubbing) for multiple TV series produced by the studio for the Latin American market.
Straker said a team was installed in the LA suburb of Burbank, near Hollywood, specifically to land such deals.
Now, with his first entertainment customer on board, he sees it as a rich new vein of business.
"The media market is the fastest-growing segment of the translation industry and due to its rapid growth, it is hard to estimate but we believe this is a $5 billion market opportunity. It is also the market segment where demand is currently outstripping supply," Straker said.
Click here to read the full article.