What is ElevenLabs?
The AI Voice Platform Powering the Audio Internet
- Category
- AI Voice & Audio Synthesis
- Headquarters
- New York, NY (SoHo — 40 Crosby St)
- Founded
- 2022
- Employees
- ~600+ across 50+ countries
- Total Funding
- $831M+ across 5 rounds (incl. Series D third close)
- Valuation
- $11B (February 2026, Series D)
What is ElevenLabs?
ElevenLabs is an AI voice and audio platform that converts text into hyper-realistic speech in 70+ languages, offers professional-grade voice cloning, and powers real-time conversational AI agents for enterprises. Founded in 2022 by two Polish-born technologists, the company reached $500M in annual recurring revenue by April 2026 and is used by 41% of Fortune 500 companies.
ElevenLabs began as a research-first text-to-speech startup and has expanded into a full audio intelligence suite covering voice synthesis, voice cloning, AI dubbing, speech-to-text transcription (Scribe), sound effects, AI music generation, and enterprise-grade conversational voice agents (ElevenAgents). The platform generates speech indistinguishable from professional voiceover at API latencies around 135ms, enabling production workflows for content creators, media companies, and enterprise customer service teams alike. The company has been recognized as Google Cloud's 2026 Applied AI Partner of the Year, reflecting both technical excellence and measurable enterprise customer success.
The growth trajectory has been exceptional: ElevenLabs launched its first product in early 2023, reached $100M ARR within 20 months, $200M ARR in 10 more months, and $350M ARR by end-2025. It crossed $500M ARR in April 2026, adding $150M in net new ARR in just four months. Enterprise adoption now outpaces consumer revenue, with landmark deployments including Revolut (customer support for 4M+ customers across 31 languages), Klarna (10x faster resolutions and 90% lower cost per resolution for 35M U.S. customers), and Deutsche Telekom (customer support, live translation, and AI-assisted phone calls at scale).
With $831M+ raised across five funding rounds (including a third Series D close in May 2026 that brought in BlackRock, NVIDIA, Salesforce, and celebrity investors) and an $11B valuation, ElevenLabs is the undisputed category leader in AI voice infrastructure. CEO Mati Staniszewski has publicly stated the company aims to be IPO-ready within two to three years and is considering a dual listing including the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
What does ElevenLabs offer?
ElevenLabs offers a broad audio AI suite spanning speech synthesis, voice cloning, conversational agents, dubbing, transcription, sound effects, and music generation, accessible via web app and API.
- Text-to-Speech (TTS) — Eleven v3· Core Platform
- Voice Cloning (Instant & Professional)· Core Platform
- AI Dubbing· Core Platform
- Dubbing Studio· Core Platform
- Conversational AI Agents (ElevenAgents)· Enterprise
- Speech-to-Text (Scribe)· Core Platform
- Voice Library Marketplace· Ecosystem
- AI Music (Eleven Music)· Creative Tools
- Sound Effects (SFX v2)· Creative Tools
- Voice Isolator· Creative Tools
- Reader App· Consumer
- Studio Editor· Content Production
- ElevenLabs API· Developer
- Python SDK· Developer
- TypeScript / React Agent SDK· Developer
- HubSpot & Salesforce Integration· Enterprise
- On-Premise / VPC Deployment· Enterprise
- ElevenCreative (Veo-powered video+audio)· Creative Tools
How does ElevenLabs make money?
ElevenLabs monetizes through a consumption-based SaaS model with seven self-serve tiers plus custom enterprise contracts, where revenue is driven primarily by character (credit) volume, voice cloning seats, and enterprise platform fees for conversational AI agents.
Self-serve plans span seven tiers as of 2026: Free (10,000 credits/month, no commercial rights), Starter ($6/month, approximately 30 minutes of audio, commercial rights), Creator ($22/month, approximately 100 minutes, professional voice cloning, up to 30 saved voices), Pro ($99/month, 500,000 characters, approximately 500 minutes), Scale ($299/month, 2 million characters, approximately 2,000 minutes), and Business ($990/month, 6 million credits for agencies and larger product teams). The cost per minute of audio ranges from roughly $0.10 at Scale to $0.50 at Starter, creating strong incentive to upgrade as usage grows. Enterprise contracts above Business tier are custom-priced and include unlimited API calls, SLA guarantees, VPC deployment, HIPAA/PCI compliance, and dedicated customer success.
Enterprise revenue has surpassed consumer revenue and is the primary growth driver as of 2025. Key enterprise use cases include customer support voice agents (Revolut reduced time-to-resolution 8x; Klarna cut cost per resolution 90%), real-time dubbing for global media, audiobook production at scale, and AI-powered sales automation. Deutsche Telekom uses ElevenLabs across three distinct workloads: customer support, real-time network-integrated live assistance, and marketing video production. This multi-workload expansion is the land-and-expand motion VP Sales Carles Reina has publicly described targeting 20x ACV growth.
The platform's Voice Library marketplace creates a secondary flywheel: voice actors list cloned voices for licensing fees, generating a creator economy that broadens supply and deepens platform lock-in. Distribution has expanded significantly through GCP Marketplace, allowing Google Cloud customers to spend existing committed spend on ElevenLabs models, and through confirmed integrations with HubSpot and Salesforce that embed ElevenAgents directly into enterprise CRM workflows at near-zero incremental CAC.
Who leads ElevenLabs?
ElevenLabs is led by its two Polish co-founders, Mati Staniszewski as CEO and Piotr Dabkowski as CTO, supported by a VP-level team across revenue, engineering, finance, and operations.
- Mati StaniszewskiCo-Founder & CEO2022–presentFormer Palantir deployment strategist and BlackRock (Aladdin Wealth platform launch); childhood friend of Piotr; inspired to found ElevenLabs by poor dubbing of American films in Poland. Publicly targeting IPO readiness within 2–3 years as of March 2026, with a potential dual listing on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
- Piotr DabkowskiCo-Founder & CTO2022–presentFormer Google machine learning engineer; previously at Opera Software and Tessian; leads all model research and AI infrastructure. His conviction drove the GCP/NVIDIA Blackwell partnership for model training, and integration of Gemini into ElevenAgents and Google's Veo into ElevenCreative.
- Carles ReinaVP Sales / VP Revenue2023–presentJoined as the fourth employee and an early investor; built the go-to-market org from $0 to $500M+ ARR; publicly targets 20x ACV expansion on initial deals; architect of the land-and-expand enterprise motion.
- Maciej MylikVP of Finance2023–presentLeads financial operations across the company's five-round, $831M+ fundraising trajectory.
- Tim von KänelVP of Backend EngineeringUnknown–presentOversees the backend infrastructure powering real-time voice synthesis and sub-200ms latency agent workloads on GKE and NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs.
- Victoria W.VP of OperationsUnknown–presentManages global operations across 14+ cities and 50+ countries.
How do you contact ElevenLabs's leadership?
ElevenLabs's verified email pattern is first-initial + last name at elevenlabs.io (e.g., mstaniszewski@elevenlabs.io), confirmed by LeadIQ and RocketReach as used by approximately 75% of employees. A general team contact is team@elevenlabs.io. The emails below follow the verified format — no personal addresses have been publicly published by ElevenLabs.
mstaniszewski@elevenlabs.ioHow much funding has ElevenLabs raised?
ElevenLabs has raised $831M+ in total equity funding across five rounds from January 2023 through May 2026, reaching an $11B valuation in its February 2026 Series D. A third close of the Series D in May 2026 added BlackRock, Wellington, D.E. Shaw, NVIDIA, Salesforce, Deutsche Telekom, and over 30 celebrity investors, pushing the Series D total above $550M.
ElevenLabs's funding history maps almost exactly to ARR inflection points. The $2M pre-seed (January 2023, Credo Ventures) launched the public beta and attracted over 1 million registered users in under six months. The $19M Series A (June 2023, led by a16z, Nat Friedman, and Daniel Gross at a $100M valuation) arrived as the company surpassed 1 million users; angels included Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger, DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman, and Oculus VR co-founder Brendan Iribe.
The $80M Series B (January 2024, co-led by a16z, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, and Sequoia Capital) valued ElevenLabs at $1.1B — a unicorn less than two years after founding — and funded the Dubbing Studio and Voice Library marketplace launches. The $180M Series C (January 2025, co-led by ICONIQ Growth and a16z, with NEA, World Innovation Lab, Valor, Endeavor Catalyst Fund, and Lunate joining) tripled the valuation to $3.3B as ARR crossed $200M and the ElevenAgents conversational AI platform launched.
The $500M Series D (February 4, 2026, led by Sequoia Capital with Andrew Reed joining the board) valued the company at $11B. a16z quadrupled its position; ICONIQ tripled. New investors included Lightspeed Venture Partners, Evantic Capital, and BOND. A third close in May 2026 added institutional investors BlackRock, Wellington, D.E. Shaw, and Schroders; strategic investors NVIDIA (NVentures), Santander, Salesforce, KPN, and Deutsche Telekom; and over 30 creative and entertainment figures including Jamie Foxx, Eva Longoria, and Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk. A $100M employee tender offer was completed concurrently. The Series D now totals above $550M, bringing overall disclosed funding to $831M+.
How did ElevenLabs get here?
ElevenLabs grew from a two-person research project into an $11B voice AI company in just four years, hitting $500M ARR by April 2026 and attracting a roster of institutional and celebrity investors.
- 2022Founded by Mati Staniszewski and Piotr DabkowskiTwo childhood friends from Poland — a former Palantir strategist and a Google ML engineer — founded ElevenLabs with a mission to make spoken content universally accessible in any language, inspired by the poor dubbing of American films in their home country.
- January 2023Public beta launch & $2M pre-seed (Credo Ventures)ElevenLabs publicly launched its AI speech platform and raised a $2M pre-seed led by Credo Ventures. The platform attracted over 1 million registered users within five months.
- June 2023$19M Series A led by a16z at $100M valuationRaised $19M led by Andreessen Horowitz, Nat Friedman, and Daniel Gross. Launched Multilingual v1 and the AI Speech Classifier safety tool. Angels included Mike Krieger (Instagram co-founder), Mustafa Suleyman (DeepMind co-founder), and Brendan Iribe (Oculus VR co-founder).
- January 2024$80M Series B — unicorn at $1.1B valuationCo-led by a16z, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, and Sequoia. Launched Dubbing Studio and the Voice Library marketplace. ARR crossed $100M within 20 months of first product launch.
- January 2025$180M Series C at $3.3B valuation (ICONIQ & a16z)Co-led by ICONIQ Growth and a16z. Launched the Conversational AI platform (ElevenAgents). ARR reached $200M. Enterprise partnerships with Deutsche Telekom and Revolut deepened. New investors: NEA, WiL, Valor, Endeavor Catalyst Fund, Lunate.
- January 2026Signed 10-year SoHo lease at 40 Crosby Street, New YorkGovernor Kathy Hochul announced the expansion: 11,529 sq ft at $120/SF, commitment to create 230 engineering and corporate jobs, and $33M R&D investment in New York State.
- February 2026$500M Series D at $11B valuation led by Sequoia + Google Cloud partnershipLed by Sequoia's Andrew Reed (joining the board). a16z quadrupled; ICONIQ tripled. ARR closed 2025 at $350M. Simultaneously announced multi-year Google Cloud partnership with NVIDIA Blackwell GPU infrastructure (GCP G4 VMs, GKE). Named Google Cloud's 2026 Applied AI Partner of the Year.
- May 2026Series D third close: $550M+ total; $500M ARR hitDisclosed ARR of $500M (up from $350M at year-end 2025, adding $150M in four months). Third Series D close added BlackRock, Wellington, D.E. Shaw, Schroders, NVIDIA, Salesforce, KPN, Deutsche Telekom, Santander, and 30+ celebrity investors. Total Series D exceeds $550M; overall funding $831M+.
Who are ElevenLabs's competitors?
ElevenLabs competes across the voice AI stack against specialized TTS providers, broader audio platforms, and AI giants building native voice capabilities.
- Murf AIStudio-first TTS platform with 130+ voices, a built-in editor, and native Canva and PowerPoint integrations; stronger for non-technical creators and presentation use cases but lower naturalness scores than ElevenLabs in blind tests.
- Play.htDeveloper-friendly TTS API with 600+ voices across 140+ languages and competitive per-character pricing; mid-tier naturalness, popular for long-form content automation and podcast producers.
- SpeechifyConsumer-dominant read-aloud app with 55M users and the 2025 Apple Design Award; strongest for accessibility and personal productivity, trails ElevenLabs in production voice quality and enterprise platform depth.
- CartesiaUltra-low-latency TTS API (Sonic-3.5 at ~90ms time-to-first-audio) built for real-time voice agents; $191M raised (Series A led by Kleiner Perkins); narrower language support than ElevenLabs but preferred for IVR and live-call latency-critical use cases.
- DeepgramPrimarily a speech-to-text provider with its own TTS Aura model family; often used alongside ElevenLabs (STT layer) rather than purely head-to-head; lower per-character cost but lower voice naturalness.
- Resemble AIEnterprise voice cloning specialist; its open-source Chatterbox model (MIT-licensed, 5-second clone, emotion exaggeration control) achieved 63.75% user preference vs. ElevenLabs in Resemble's own blind evaluations; strong positioning for high-stakes cloning and dubbing.
ElevenLabs — frequently asked questions
