In ideal situations, startups get money and additional benefits from their investors, like mentoring and hiring recommendations. Smartcat, a translation startup with offices in Russia and San Francisco, was offered a very tangible asset: office space in Boston.
In June 2018, the company sealed a $7 million Series A investment from early stage VC firm Matrix Partners. But the money wasn't the only thing that Smartcat got from the deal.
The Smartcat team relocated from San Francisco to Matrix Partners' "entrepreneur space" in Cambridge, becoming business roommates with one of their main investors.
Based in Cambridge, the company's CEO Ivan Smolnikov said that the San Francisco office will be closed, adding that Smartcat will continue operating from two main locations: a Moscow, Russia-based R&D facility (staffed with 20 to 30 employees focusing on product and engineering) and the new Cambridge-based office. Smartcat also has an office in Cyprus.
When based in California, "It was pretty difficult to work with Moscow because of the time zone," Smolnikov said. "Also, it wasn't easy to hire the right people."
Currently, five people work for Smartcat from the Matrix office in Cambridge, plus 15 employees working remotely. The local office, which Smolnikov said will be focusing on sales and marketing, is planning on increasing headcount to reflect its focus: seven to ten new people in sales, three to five in marketing, and one or two in product management, Smolnikov said.
The company's name is not a reference to felines. The "cat" part of Smartcat stands for "computer-aided translation," an acronym that is immediately familiar to people in the translation space.
In this industry, Smolnikov explained, customers buy translation services from freelancers or agencies. The Smartcat platform allows both translation agencies and freelancers to automate the translation workflow, including not only the actual translation work, but also payments, project management and recruiting.
For Smolnikov, they can build an "even better company in Boston."
