ElevenLabs – a voice technology research company – announced today it has raised an $80m Series B round co-led by Andreessen Horowitz, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross and joined by Sequoia Capital, SV Angel, Smash Capital, BroadLight Capital, and Credo Ventures, to cement its position as the global leader in voice AI research and product deployment.
Since its launch, ElevenLabs has led the industry in natural speech synthesis, enabling users to create and design AI voices across a vast swathe of languages and accents, with the ability to deliver a wide range of emotions and intonations. And ElevenLabs’ users have generated over 100 years of audio as the company grew from 5 to 40 employees. ElevenLabs’ technology is now being used by employees at 41% of Fortune 500 companies.
ElevenLabs’ technology has been adopted across numerous verticals. It has enabled creators to enhance audience experiences with voiceovers and AI dubbing, broadening access to education, and providing innovative solutions in audiobook publishing, entertainment, and personal use, including improving accessibility.
The funding round will be used to refine the company’s product offering further while ensuring the safe deployment of AI technology. ElevenLabs also unveiled several new product developments – which is expected to go live over the coming weeks:
1.) A Dubbing Studio workflow enables users to dub entire movies and generate and edit their transcripts, translations, and timecodes, providing additional control over content production. And these features supplement the already existing AI dubbing feature, enabling automated, end-to-end video localization across 29 languages.
2.) A Voice Library marketplace that will provide a secure platform for users to earn from AI versions of their voices. Users can create their professional AI voice replica, verify it, and share it through Voice Library. And when others use these verified voices, the original creators receive compensation. Users always retain control over their voice’s availability and compensation terms. The marketplace is generating income for a small group of alpha users already.
3.) An early preview of the Mobile App reader enabling instant conversion of text and URLs into audio, making it easier for users to access content in another medium while on the move. As an introductory trial, the app will be available free of charge for the first three months, and users will be able to register for early access through a waiting list.
Last year, ElevenLabs also expanded its presence in multiple sectors, including publishing, gaming, media, and conversational verticals, as well as forging B2B partnerships with major media houses, among them:
Publishing – Storytel, The Washington Post, Rheinische Post, and Curio
Conversational AI – FlowGPT, SimpleTalk AI, Ollang, VoiceDrop, Vana, and Infinitus AI
Media & Entertainment – Wondershare Filmora, Futuri Media, and TheSoul Publishing
Gaming – Paradox Interactive, NetEase, and Inworld AI
With this Series B funding, ElevenLabs plans to cement its position as the global leader in voice AI research and product deployment. And the funding will be put into advancing research, expanding infrastructure, developing new products for specific verticals, and enhancing safety measures to ensure responsible and ethical development of AI technology.
KEY QUOTES:
“Our team’s dedication has already made a lasting impact on voice AI. This new funding enables us to take on even bigger challenges and focus on maintaining our competitive edge in research and product development.”
– Piotr Dąbkowski, CTO of ElevenLabs
“Our ambition remains the same – to transform how we interact with content by breaking down language and communication barriers. We’re building cutting-edge technology to make content accessible across languages – and voices – to enable everyone to connect with information and stories that matter. Our progress so far is a testament to our dedicated team and investors, and while it’s still only the beginning of our journey, together we’re helping shape the future of accessibility and communication.”
– Mati Staniszewski
