Voice-cloning startup ElevenLabs looks to triple its valuation to more than $3 billion in new funding round led by Iconiq Capital
NEWS | 16 December 2024
ElevenLabs is raising new funding, boosting its valuation to over $3 billion, according to multiple sources. The startup offers tools for creating voice agents that mimic the user's own voice. ElevenLabs is well-funded, but OpenAI's secretive voice project could pose a major threat. ElevenLabs, a startup that can recreate a person's voice from a recording, is close to raising a new round of funding this year that would push its valuation to over $3 billion, Business Insider has learned from two people with knowledge of the deal. This time, a year ago, the voice-cloning startup was worth $100 million. The startup is aiming to raise $200 million in the round, according to one source. The potential round is being led by the wealth-management juggernaut Iconiq Capital, both people said, and included participation from the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, one of the people said. Details of the latest funding round are not yet finalized, and the figures involved are subject to change. The story of ElevenLabs began with founders Piotr Dąbkowski and Mati Staniszewski's desire to improve voice-dubbing in movies. Their idea turned into an advanced system for turning text into speech that can now create original dialogue bearing a striking resemblance to the user's own voice. The tool only needs minutes of audio of someone speaking to clone their voice. The company, which sells mostly to publishers, content creators, and media and entertainment companies, has reached $90 million in annual recurring revenue, according to the two people familiar with the new funding. It's pacing to hit $100 million in annual revenue by year's end. That kind of growth had investors flinging term sheets at the two-year-old company, the people familiar with the deal said. The company has been increasing its targeted round size and valuation during the process of raising funding, according to these sources. Funding for voice technology companies has picked up even as some of the shine comes off the digital intelligence category as a whole. ElevenLabs competes with Vapi, a voice-based developer tool with $2 million in seed money from Kleiner Perkins and Abstract Ventures, and companies like Thoughtly and Retell that are developing voice agents for call centers. ElevenLabs has gathered more money than any of them, though the real competition may come from one of the world's most valuable startups. In March, OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT and Dall-E, shared details about a pilot program that will allow a closed group of companies to create a synthetic voice based on a real person's speech. Business Insider emailed ElevenLab's co-founders on Wednesday morning and did not receive a response. Representatives Iconiq Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Author: Melia Russell. Ben Bergman. Riddhi Kanetkar.
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