Phrase vs IBM

About

Phrase is an enterprise AI localization platform founded in 2012 in Prague, Czech Republic, originally under the name Memsource. The company was built by translation technology veterans who recognized that enterprise localization — translating product interfaces, marketing content, legal documents, and support materials into dozens of languages — was bottlenecked by fragmented workflows, manual handoffs between translators and engineers, and translation management systems that had not kept pace with the volume and speed demands of digital-first businesses. Phrase's mission is to make global content delivery as fast and seamless as its creation.\n\nThe platform integrates a translation management system, neural machine translation, multimedia and video localization, quality assurance automation, and a marketplace connecting enterprises with professional translation agencies — all under a single unified interface. Phrase's AI translation engine is trained on enterprise-specific terminology and style guides through translation memory and glossary management, ensuring brand consistency across languages at scale. The platform provides native integrations with content management systems, developer tools, and cloud storage, allowing strings and files to flow automatically into and out of localization workflows. Customers include Uber, Amazon Web Services, Volkswagen, and other multinational enterprises with high-velocity multilingual content requirements.\n\nPhrase is backed by the Carlyle Group, one of the world's largest private equity firms, which invested to support the company's international expansion and product development. Founded in 2012, the company has grown into one of the two or three largest independent enterprise TMS providers globally, competing with SDL/RWS and Smartling. Its combination of owned MT technology, comprehensive workflow automation, and major-brand customer references positions Phrase as a full-stack localization infrastructure provider for global enterprises.