Carlyle backs translation specialist Memsource

Alessia Argentieri
03 July 2020

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The Carlyle Group has acquired a majority stake in Prague-based translation software developer Memsource.

Memsource management, led by founder and CEO David Canek, will retain a minority holding in the business.

The GP deployed capital from Carlyle Europe Technology Partners IV, which backs lower-mid-market technology-focused businesses based across Europe and the US. The fund was launched in November 2018 with a €1.3bn target and held a final close on its hard-cap of €1.35bn in January 2019. It typically invests tickets in the €30-100m range in companies with enterprise values of €40-250m.

With this financing and the GP's support, Memsource plans to accelerate its growth across its key markets and further expand internationally, primarily in North America and Asia.

Company
Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Prague, Memsource is a translation software developer able to automate the localisation of large volumes of multilingual content.

Its platform supports 500 languages, 50 file types and 30 machine translation engines. It enables its customers to increase translation quality while reducing costs by using its patented AI technology.

Memsource employs 120 staff across offices located in Europe, Japan and the US. Its software is used by several local companies and international corporations, including Uber, Zendesk, Supercell, Vistaprint and Whirlpol.

People
Carlyle – Fernando Chueca (managing director in the Carlyle Europe Technology Partners team).
Memsource – David Canek (founder, CEO).

Advisers
Equity – Trigon (corporate finance).