ElevenLabs has secured a massive $500 million in Series D funding, catapulting the conversational AI firm to an $11 billion valuation. Led by Sequoia, with significant reinvestment from a16z and ICONIQ, this injection of capital signals strong confidence in ElevenLabs’ rapidly expanding platform. The company is now doubling down on ElevenAgents, its enterprise-focused conversational AI designed to revolutionize customer experience and streamline operations, already boasting over $330 million in ARR with clients like Deutsche Telekom and Revolut. “We have raised 500 million at an $11 billion valuation to transform how we interactive technology,” stated ElevenLabs, highlighting ambitions that extend from creative tools to a future beyond an eventual IPO.
ElevenLabs Secures $500M Series D at $11B Valuation
The investment, spearheaded by Sequoia, demonstrates “the trust of customers and partners building at the frontier alongside us,” according to ElevenLabs. A significant portion of the funding comes from existing investors, with a16z quadrupling their investment and ICONIQ tripling down, signaling strong confidence in the company’s trajectory. This capital injection will fuel further development of ElevenAgents, the company’s conversational AI platform designed to enhance customer experiences and streamline enterprise operations. ElevenLabs projects exceeding $330 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) by close of 2025, already serving clients including Deutsche Telekom, Square, and the Ukrainian government.
A new conversational model, boasting improved emotional understanding and turn-taking, is currently available in alpha testing on the company’s website. “We build the first truly human like voice model. Since then we’ve pushed data research across text to speech, speech to text, sound effects and music,” the company states, highlighting its expanding research scope. Alongside Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz and ICONIQ will now have representation on ElevenLabs’ board, joined by new investors Lightspeed, Evantic Capital, and BOND. The company’s ambition extends beyond voice technology, encompassing ElevenCreative—a studio for content creators—and a broader vision to “transform how we interact with technology.” With a team of 400, ElevenLabs is actively building towards an IPO and beyond, maintaining a “hungry” approach to innovation in this nascent field.
ElevenAgents Platform Drives $330M ARR with Enterprise Clients
The company’s success is attracting major enterprise clients including Deutsche Telekom, Square, Deliveroo, Revolut, and even the Ukrainian government, signaling a broadening adoption of conversational AI solutions. This financial acceleration is underpinned by a recently secured $500 million Series D funding round, valued at $11 billion.
The platform’s capabilities extend beyond simple chatbot functionality; ElevenLabs is focused on building “a platform for enterprises to elevate the customer experiences with conversational agents that talk, type and take action.” A newly released conversational model promises enhanced emotional understanding and more natural interactions, building upon the existing v3 model and featuring an improved turn-taking system available for alpha testing. The company’s research now encompasses text-to-speech, speech-to-text, music, dubbing, and these advanced conversational models, demonstrating a commitment to pushing the boundaries of audio intelligence. This multifaceted approach is reflected in both ElevenCreative – a studio for content creators – and ElevenAgents, designed for enterprise-level applications.
With 11 creative, we build a single studio for creators to combine voice, music and image and video. With 11 agents, we build a platform for enterprises to elevate the customer experiences with conversational agents that talk, type and take action.
New Conversational Model Enhances Emotional Intelligence & Turn-Taking
ElevenLabs is deploying a new conversational model for its Agents Platform, designed to significantly improve both emotional understanding and the flow of dialogue, building upon their recently released v3 model. This advancement focuses on creating more natural interactions, moving beyond simple command-response systems towards genuinely empathetic exchanges. The company reports the model is “faster and better at understanding and expressing emotion,” a crucial step in building truly human-like AI agents. An alpha version is currently available for testing directly on the ElevenLabs website, allowing users to experience the enhanced capabilities firsthand.
This upgrade is part of a broader strategy to refine ElevenAgents, the company’s platform geared towards enterprise-level applications, including customer service and internal operations. Beyond simply recognizing sentiment, the new model incorporates an “improved turn-taking system” aiming to mimic the nuances of human conversation, ensuring more seamless and engaging interactions. The company’s research extends beyond conversational AI, encompassing text-to-speech, speech-to-text, music, dubbing, and further advancements in audio intelligence, with a clear vision for continued innovation.
Expansion into Voice, Music, and Comprehensive Creative Tools
ElevenLabs is extending its technological reach beyond core speech synthesis, now encompassing music generation, dubbing, and a unified creative platform dubbed ElevenCreative. This expansion aims to provide creators, brands, and media companies with “a single studio to combine voice, music and image and video,” according to the company, signifying a move towards holistic content creation tools. Research efforts are no longer solely focused on text-to-speech and speech-to-text technologies; the team is actively pushing boundaries in sonic effects and musical composition, demonstrating a commitment to audio intelligence. ElevenLabs reports establishing itself “as the voice of technology” in the previous year, and now intends to transcend that position, aiming for seamless communication and creation through its tools.
