What do Nvidia (NVDA), The New Yorker, Chess.com and New York City Mayor Eric Adams have in common? They are all clients ElevenLabs, a startup that generates realistic audio with the help of A.I. Co-founded in 2022 by former Google (GOOGL) engineer Piotr Dabhowski and former Palantir strategist Mateusz Staniszewski, the London-based company has made waves in Silicon Valley for its voice cloning capabilities. Over the past year, the startup has more than tripled its valuation to a whopping $3.3 billion after a closing a $180 million round co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Iconiq Growth, the company announced yesterday (Jan. 30).
The capital will be used to expand ElevenLabs’ capabilities and make its A.I. voices more “expressive and controllable,” the company said. “Speech is how we naturally communicate. This funding moves us closer to a world where digital interactions happen by voice—fluid, natural and as effortless as a conversation,” said Staniszewski, who serves as CEO of ElevenLabs, in a statement.
ElevenLabs’ products include tools that build interactive voice agents, generate custom voices or sound effects via text prompts and help voice actors monetize A.I.-generated audio. According to the company, its technology has been embraced by workers at more than 60 percent of Fortune 500 companies. Customers range from peer A.I. companies like Perplexity AI, which uses ElevenLabs to generate podcasts summarizing the news, to publishers like The Washington Post and The Atlantic, which utilize the technology to create audio versions of stories. Last year, New York City Mayor Eric Adams tapped the startup to contact New Yorkers with multilingual robocalls.
The rise of A.I.-generated voices hasn’t been without controversy. Last year, audio experts claimed that technology from ElevenLabs was used to generate robocalls mimicking the voice of former President Joe Biden to voters in New Hampshire during the Presidential campaign. ElevenLabs subsequently suspended the account behind the fake robocalls. The company said its latest funding will be used to bolster A.I. safety and ensure its products are deployed without harm.
To date, ElevenLabs has raised $281 million in venture funding. Its top backers include Sequoia Capital, Smash Capital, Broadlight Capital, SV Angel, NFDG and Salesforce’s venture arm.
The A.I. voice industry generated $3.5 billion in revenue in 2023. That figure is expected to exceed $21 billion by the end of the decade, according to data from Grand View Research. Other notable A.I. voice startups include:
WaveForms raised $40 million in December;
Cartesia raised $27 million in December;
Play AI raised $21 million in November;
Hume raised $50 million in March 2024.
