Nordtext Expands Presence in Finland with Acquisition of Fluentic-Owned Transfluent

In a deal that closed in January 2024, technical and life sciences language services provider (LSP) Nordtext acquired Finnish company Transfluent.

The acquisition does not include Fluentic, the parent company that sold Transfluent to Nordtext. Fluentic decided to focus on its multilingual customer service offerings and sold off the translation division of the business. 

While financial details of the deal were not disclosed, 2023 revenues for Transfluent and Nordtext were EUR 1.1m and EUR 2.1m, respectively. The forecasted combined revenue for 2024 is EUR 3.5m. 

In a LinkedIn post announcing the acquisition, Nordtext CEO Kristaps Kvelde called Transfluent an “instant match.” Transfluent will maintain its own brand under the umbrella of Nordtext. 

Seven of Transfluent’s eight employees will stay onboard, joining Nordtext’s team of 17. The one exception is Mikko Räty, now CEO of Fluentic.

Riga-headquartered Nordtext serves three distinct customer groups, acting as a government and EU contractor; as a regional provider of Nordic and Baltic language services for other LSPs; and as an LSP working directly with mostly Nordic-Baltic enterprises and SaaS companies.

Transfluent, on the other hand, works exclusively with direct clients across a range of sectors, including retail, e-commerce, marketing, and gaming.

While the companies had no prior relationship, Nordtext was already on the lookout for ways to grow its presence in Finland, following a 2022 acquisition of Finnish LSP Maris Multilingual. 

Kvelde described the Finnish and Nordic markets for translation and localization as rather fragmented. Buyers, meanwhile, are typically technology-savvy and open to experimenting with machine translation (MT) and AI solutions. 

“Nordic languages remain under-supplied with qualified linguists,” Kvelde added. “Gains in productivity thanks to MT is helping to solve this problem and we hope this will raise appreciation of human translators and allow them to focus on higher value-added tasks.”