AI voice company ElevenLabs has once again captured attention, as it has just completed a Series C funding round of up to $250 million, with a valuation between $3 billion and $3.3 billion. This round was led by ICONIQ Growth, demonstrating strong market confidence in AI voice technology. Just a year ago, ElevenLabs completed an $80 million Series B funding round, with a valuation only one-third of its current worth, highlighting the rapid growth of the company.
Founded in 2022 by Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dabkowski, ElevenLabs aims to address the issue of poor voiceover quality. Today, the company has become a leader in the AI voice sector, with core technologies that include voice cloning and voiceover tools. With the rise of generative AI and the increasing demand for multimedia content, ElevenLabs' technology perfectly meets this market need.
Since launching its beta version in January 2023, the company has quickly gained popularity and completed a $19 million Series A funding round in June of the same year. Although its technology has been misused to create fake news, ElevenLabs has gradually become a partner to several well-known companies by developing detection tools and safety measures. Its clients include text-to-video startup Synthesia, The Washington Post, HarperCollins, Bertelsmann, and various gaming companies.
ElevenLabs' technology is offered through an API and covers a wide range of applications, including text-to-speech, voice cloning, track modification, and sound creation. This broad applicability has led to rapid revenue growth. Reports indicate that the company’s annual recurring revenue (ARR) has increased from $25 million in 2023 to approximately $90 million now. Although there were rumors that its valuation could reach $4 billion, the final valuation is about 37 times the ARR.
Despite a slightly moderate price-to-earnings ratio compared to some rapidly growing AI companies like Cursor, ElevenLabs' steady growth and wide-ranging applications make it one of the most promising companies in the AI voice sector. Its competitors include numerous startups as well as tech giants like Google and OpenAI, which have also impacted ElevenLabs' valuation.
Early investors in ElevenLabs include well-known venture capital firms such as Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Credo Ventures, along with corporate investors like Salesforce Ventures and Disney. The completion of this Series C funding round will undoubtedly accelerate ElevenLabs' expansion and development in the AI voice field.
