Ever been at a conference where the speaker is presenting in a language you do not understand? You probably fumbled with your phone, trying to get a translation app to pick up the audio from across the room, only to get garbled nonsense back. It is a surprisingly common problem, and now two companies are joining forces to fix it.
DeepL, the German translation powerhouse known for its remarkably accurate text translation, has acquired Mixhalo, a startup that specializes in real-time audio streaming for live events. The deal brings together DeepL’s language expertise with Mixhalo’s audio infrastructure, and the goal is to make real-time translation at concerts, conferences, and sports events actually work well.
Mixhalo has an interesting origin story. It was founded in 2016 by Mike Einziger — yes, the guitarist from Incubus — along with violinist Ann Marie Simpson-Einziger and entrepreneur Vik Singh. The original pitch was about improving the live concert experience by letting attendees stream high-quality audio directly to their phones. Over the years, the company pivoted toward powering real-time audio for sports and live events more broadly, raising over $39 million from investors including Founders Fund and Cowboy Ventures.
The acquisition makes a lot of sense when you look at the trajectory both companies have been on. DeepL has been aggressively expanding beyond text translation. In 2024, the company launched voice-to-text translation in over 33 languages, and this April it rolled out a voice-to-voice translation suite aimed at multilingual meetings. Mixhalo already used DeepL as its primary translation provider, so the two were natural partners.
Mixhalo CEO Vik Singh described the deal as organic, noting that he ended up seated next to DeepL’s CTO at a customer dinner and the conversation just flowed. The more they talked, the more obvious the overlap became across events, APIs, and applications. For DeepL, Mixhalo serves as both a product solution and a marketing showcase — a way to demonstrate real-time translation in live, in-person environments.
As part of the deal, DeepL is opening a new office in San Francisco, signaling a serious push into the U.S. market. The company will now compete more directly with players like Wordly AI and Palabra in the live-event translation space. With voice AI models proliferating rapidly, the timing feels right for a company that can bridge the gap between raw translation technology and real-world event experiences.
Why it matters: Live events are inherently multilingual experiences, and the technology to bridge language barriers in real time has been clunky at best. If DeepL and Mixhalo can deliver seamless translation at scale, it could transform how global audiences engage with conferences, concerts, and sports — making language differences a non-factor for the first time.
