Crowdsourced translation platform Amara -- formerly known as Universal Subtitles -- just got a big vote of confidence from the Mozilla and Knight Foundations, in the form of $1 million in funding.

The Amara / Universal Subtitles platform makes it remarkably easy for anyone to watch a video and translate it into any language. PBS, Al Jazeera and the Khan Academy are just a few of the big names that have used Amara to translate their content quickly and at no or near no cost. The platform recruits volunteers to help with translation for hard of hearing users and non-profits. PBS and Ushahidi have also used Amara to recruit their own  teams of translation volunteers.

Amara says it has translated over 170,000 videos since it got started in 2010, including translating the viral Kony 2012 video into 35 languages in just 4 days.

"Mozilla's global translation and localization communities have always been at the heart of who we are. For the first time, Amara lets us extend our community translation work to include video," said Mark Surman, executive director of Mozilla. "We are proud to support Amara as they build a crucial part of the open Web."

Amara is a spin-off of the Participatory Culture Foundation, which is a non-profit, so the funding received from Mozilla and Knight is in the form of a grant, not a startup investment. You can watch a video from Alberto Ibargüen, CEO of Knight Foundation, talking about Amara below: