AI Voice Company ElevenLabs Raises $80 Million in Funding
-
London-based AI voice company ElevenLabs has successfully raised $80 million in its latest funding round, with its valuation soaring to $1.1 billion (approximately 7.931 billion yuan), officially joining the unicorn club. The funding was led by renowned venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, entrepreneurs Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, with participation from Sequoia Capital and others.
Founded in 2022 and headquartered in London, ElevenLabs specializes in developing AI voice models and tools capable of creating synthetic voices in different languages, accents, and emotions. CEO Mati Staniszewski stated that ElevenLabs currently employs around 40 remote workers globally and plans to expand the team to 100 by the end of the year.
Staniszewski noted that ElevenLabs' clientele includes individual content creators as well as enterprises like Storytel, Paradox Interactive, and The Washington Post. The company's technology has even been used by U.S. political campaigns to reach foreign-language voters. He emphasized that ElevenLabs places a strong emphasis on transparency in AI-generated content and has developed tools like the AI Speech Classifier to help identify synthetic audio. The company is also working on tools for film dubbing and developing a platform that allows users to generate AI voices and monetize them through licensing.
ElevenLabs faces fierce competition in the AI voice sector from companies like OpenAI. OpenAI's ChatGPT launched a text-to-speech product last year, directly competing with ElevenLabs. Staniszewski highlighted that ElevenLabs' advantage lies in not only focusing on technological development but also prioritizing workflow integration to provide comprehensive solutions for users.