Where do companies like Rakuten, Alibaba, and Youtube find translators? Gengo. (#StartupAsia preview)

Robert Laing (Left), Matthew Romaine (Right)

Founded in 2008 by Robert Laing and Matthew Romaine, Gengo‘s network of more than 11,000 translators have translated more than 225 million words for businesses both big and small.

The B2B human translation services now supports 34 languages and 58 language pairs – a pair being two languages that can be translated both ways. Some of its biggest clients include Rakuten, Alibaba, Youtube, and TripAdvisor. The Tokyo-based startup, run by the duo, has raised a combined US$19 million in funding to date from Atomico, Intel Capital, and Infocomm Investments, among others.

See: Gengo cracks 200 million mark for words translated

When we last spoke to the Gengo team, they claimed 95 percent of all translations are picked up in under 200 minutes, and over 90 percent of all the site’s crowdsourced translations are done within 24 hours. At the time, Laing aimed to cut that time in half.

So have they done it? Laing’s six-month self-imposed deadline is fast approaching, and we’ll be sure to ask him about that and much more at Tech in Asia‘s Startup Asia Tokyo conference on September 3.

Laing will be on stage for a fireside chat, where we’ll warmly welcome him with burning questions like, “Why can’t I just use Google Translate?” (hint: it sucks.)

Got a better question to ask? Tweet it to us using the #StartupAsia hashtag. We look forward to seeing you at the conference.

Get Startup Asia Tokyo 2014 tickets here. Use the code Techinasia before August 8 to receive a 15 percent discount.