Translation startup DeepL is set to lay off 250 staff as it overhauls its business to compete in the AI era.
Jarek Kutylowski, the company’s CEO and founder, said in a statement the decision was a “deliberate structural choice about how DeepL needs to operate to remain a global AI leader.” The company employs over 1,000 people worldwide.
Founded in 2017, Cologne-based DeepL’s investors include ICONIQ Growth, Teachers’ Venture Growth, IVP, Atomico and WiL. It last raised a $300m round in 2024 at a $2bn valuation.
Kutylowski said the cuts to DeepL’s workforce came after the company’s leadership team analysed how best the company could operate in the AI era.
“This means transforming how DeepL works from the inside out, with AI embedded into every layer of how we operate,” he wrote.
“We are not waiting until the shift is fully obvious to everyone in the market — the right time to make a move like this is before you have to.”
The startup released an AI agent, dubbed “DeepL agent” last year in a bid to step beyond translation services.
DeepL is also working on a real-time voice translation tool, Kutylowski said. To do so, the company has brought on the team from US firm Mixalo, an audio streaming startup.
