At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week, the messaging startup Layer provided tools as part of the Forum’s app to allow world leaders to communicate across the language barrier.

The app allowed 3,000 leaders from 100 different countries to send messages in their own native language — and the receiver to instantly translate it into his or her native language.

The translations were powered by the Microsoft Translator Text API. Layer said the it only took about four hours to integrate the API into the messaging app.

Layer is partially funded by Microsoft Ventures, which invests in startups that are focused on mobile- and cloud-first technologies.

You can learn more about the Layer app and Microsoft Ventures in the Microsoft Next blog.

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