A Wellington startup hopes to do for the US$29 billion ($33b) worldwide translation market what the likes of eBay and Trade Me did for the sale of second-hand goods.

OpenBorder has invested $400,000 creating an online marketplace that organisations can use to farm out jobs to translators. Its four staff include former Trade Me development head Alan Howard and its majority shareholder, Paul Sulzberger, is a director of the New Zealand Translation Centre (NZTC) in Wellington, which employs 30 staff.

Chief executive Jamie Kruger said that despite the obviousness of the idea, he did not believe there was an established incumbent, though it was common for individual translation businesses to accept jobs and farm out work to freelancers over the web.

He said there were about 25,000 translation companies and hundreds of thousands of "freelancers" many of which had difficulty connecting with clients, which were often in different countries.

OpenBorder will take a commission on jobs and charge translators a subscription fee.

Clients and translators will rate one another through a Trade Me-like feedback system so they can establish reputations. Clients would be able to accept any bid, not necessarily the cheapest, taking into account translators' skills, experience and feedback.

OpenBorder has recruited 37 suppliers and eight buyers to trial its service, which will launch this month. It plans a further fund raising during the fourth quarter.

NZTC sales and marketing director Hagen Issell said there were numerous online marketplaces for translation.

"OpenBorder's model is definitely innovative, although the key challenge will be cutting through in the busy marketplace and building awareness and sufficient critical mass of buyers and sellers to make it work."