tolingo celebrates 10-year anniversary

Hamburg, 16 November 2017

Founded in 2007, tolingo GmbH is today one of Germany’s leading translation service providers, with around 60 employees at its offices in Hamburg and Stuttgart. A look back at an intense and successful decade of rapid growth, exciting translation projects and a strong team.

How it all began

Initially, ‘tolingo’ was the working title for a small project that was expected to last four weeks at most. The idea was to have lots of small translations produced by students for publication on their own blogs. This project was soon found to have more potential than expected, however, and the first official translation was completed on 8 May 2008. 300 more projects followed, and a breakthrough not long after: an enquiry from a well-known online sales platform that wanted to have all of its product descriptions translated into English.

From start-up to full-service translation provider

Over the next twelve months, everything happened very quickly: tolingo got its corporate design, the first employees were recruited, and a new office was leased. 2009 and 2010 saw investment in numerous marketing campaigns and partnerships to raise the profile of the ‘tolingo’ brand. Afterwards, the focus was shifted towards sales and customer service. The founders of blau Mobilfunk GmbH helped to finance the further growth of tolingo, and by 2011 another two capital investors had been secured.

tolingo moved beyond the start-up phase and developed into a competitive, professional and multi-certified translation agency. With staff numbers rising, tolingo relocated to its current, modern office in Hamburg-Altona in 2015. In October of the same year, tolingo finally expanded its presence to cover southern Germany as well by opening a second office in the centre of Stuttgart.

The idea has proved successful – and tolingo is now increasingly focussed on B2B clients who demand thorough customer service along with high quality standards. Not for nothing has tolingo been certified for its high quality translation process under the ISO 17100 standard (then DIN EN 15038) since 2011.

For years, many well-known companies from a wide range of industries have put their trust in tolingo, making it possible to accomplish complex translation projects together.

„Wir sind am Markt sehr gut aufgestellt und gehören mittlerweile zu den Top 20 Übersetzungsdienstleistern in Westeuropa“, sagt Geschäftsführer John Waack stolz.

“In order to stay on this course, we have set ourselves ambitious goals for the coming years.With our industry experience, expertise and a strong team, we look forward to a bright future,” adds managing director Jens Völkel.