The synthetic voice technology company ElevenLabs has secured $80 million in new funding, prompting it to be valued at over $1 billion.
ElevenLabs, a startup that utilizes AI to create and edit synthetic voices, has recently announced the successful closing of an $80 million Series B funding round. The round was co-led by well-known investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, and entrepreneur Daniel Gross, which also saw participation from Sequoia Capital, Smash Capital, SV Angel, BroadLight Capital, and Credo Ventures. This brings ElevenLabs’ total raised funding to $101 million and has increased the company’s valuation to over $1 billion, up from approximately $100 million last June. This influx of new capital will be directed towards product development, expanding ElevenLabs’ infrastructure and team, AI research, and implementing safety measures to ensure ethical development of AI technology, according to CEO Mati Staniszewski.
ElevenLabs was co-founded in 2022 by Piotr Dabkowski, a former Google machine learning engineer, and Staniszewski, a former Palantir deployment strategist. The company launched in beta roughly a year ago, with the duo being inspired by poorly dubbed American films to create voice cloning tools. Among ElevenLabs’ best-known products is a browser-based speech generation app that allows users to create lifelike voices with adjustable toggles for intonation, emotion, and other vocal characteristics. In addition, the company has been investing in developing versions of its technology tailored for creating audiobooks, dubbing films and TV shows, and generating character voices for games and marketing campaigns.
Despite its success, ElevenLabs has received criticism for how its technology has been used, including the creation of harmful content and copyright infringement concerns from voice actors. In response, ElevenLabs has been actively working on implementing measures to detect and prevent misuse of its technology and is planning to collaborate with distribution partners to make such tools available on third-party platforms. The startup also plans to further develop its voice marketplace, allowing users to create, verify, and share voices while providing compensation to creators when their voices are utilized.
As the synthetic voice industry continues to expand, ElevenLabs aims to grow its team and make significant advancements within the market.
