ElevenLabs valuation reaches $22bn after $300m share sale

In short: ElevenLabs, an AI voice software company, is now valued at $22bn after a $300m sale of existing shares.

What happened

London-based ElevenLabs makes software that can generate realistic speech, like a very advanced text-to-speech tool. The company’s valuation, which is an estimate of what the whole business is worth, has doubled to $22bn.

This new price tag came from a secondary share sale. That means existing investors and employees sold some of their shares to new buyers, rather than the company raising new money by issuing fresh shares (like selling some of your old stock to a new neighbor, instead of building a new room onto the house).

The $300m transaction was led by investment firms Wellington and T Rowe Price. ElevenLabs’ CEO, Mati Staniszewski, said the deal helped bring in long-term large investors, including Goldman Sachs and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC. He also said it can help the company hire and keep AI researchers.

ElevenLabs was founded in 2022 by Staniszewski and Piotr Dąbkowski. It has grown to about 800 staff across 20 countries, with around 200 people in London. Staniszewski said the company would like to be ready for an IPO, which is when a company sells shares to the public on a stock market, in about two to two and a half years.

Why it matters

Realistic AI voices are already used by big companies and even governments, and ElevenLabs says some of its largest customers include Deutsche Telekom, KPN, and the governments of Ukraine and Greece. A higher valuation and new investors suggest strong demand for these voice tools, and also more competition for talent and resources in the AI industry.

Source: Financial Times