Toonsutra: Toonsutra featured on Google DeepMind for AI-Driven multilingual comic translation

Toonsutra, India’s homegrown webtoon comic app, announced today that it was featured in the Developer Showcase Carousel on Google’s DeepMind website. This recognition highlights Toonsutra’s current work with the Gemini 2.0 Flash translation capabilities (available in experimental preview), aimed at making its vast library of comics accessible to a diverse, multilingual audience.

Toonsutra’s mission is to empower fandom across India by bringing the joy of comics and webtoons to every corner of the country, in all its regional languages. The app boasts over 3,100 titles and 250,000+ episodes, spanning both global hits and domestic favorites. With a user base in the hundreds of thousands, Toonsutra is dedicated to offering a premium reading experience where language is never a barrier.

Before the emergence of generative AI tools, Toonsutra would have faced significant challenges in translating its vast collection of comic episodes into multiple languages with high quality and consistency.

“In our early prototyping, we’ve been impressed with Gemini 2.0 Flash’s advanced multi-modal translation capabilities. Comic translation is uniquely challenging—it’s not just about the text in speech bubbles, but understanding the context, tone, and narrative within each panel. Gemini’s ability to provide accurate and culturally relevant translations has allowed us to make global stories truly accessible to India’s diverse, multilingual audience,” said Vishal Anand, Co-Founder and CEO of Toonsutra.

Toonsutra plans to continue leveraging Gemini 2.0 Flash to expand its multilingual offerings and personalise the reading experience for its users. The company envisions a future where language is no longer a barrier to enjoying compelling narratives, enabling millions of Indians to experience their favorite comics in their native languages, fostering a deeper connection with the stories and characters.

This also opens up opportunities for readers across India to connect with stories from around the world, while providing Indian creators with a platform to share their work with a global audience.

Sharad Devarajan, Co-Founder and Chairman, adds: “Toonsutra’s mission is to build the biggest community of passionate fandom around comics and webtoons by bringing together the largest youth market in the world—India’s 700 million+ mobile market. With Gemini 2.0 Flash, we now have AI tools that are making that vision a reality, enabling Indian readers to experience the best comic stories from India and the world, regardless of language.”Toonsutra is backed by a leading group of investors, including the Sony Innovation Fund, Maiora Capital, Gen Fukunaga (Founder, Funimation), Kun Gao (Co-Founder, Crunchyroll), Jeremy Liew (Partner, Lightspeed), Kevin Lin (Co-Founder, Twitch), Patrick Lee (Co-Founder, Rotten Tomatoes), Holly Lui (Co-Founder, Kabam), Benjamin Grubbs (Co-Founder, CreatorPlus), Steve Chung (Former CEO of Americas, CJENM), and others.