London-based ElevenLabs has achieved a significant milestone by completing a $300 million employee tender offer that values the AI voice generation startup at $22 billion. According to reports from The Economic Times, this represents a doubling of the company's valuation from its previous funding round in February, when it was valued at $11 billion after raising $500 million in a Series D funding round. The tender offer proceeds go directly to employees rather than the company, with CEO Mati Staniszewski emphasizing that "As we grow, it's important to us to let our people share in some of the value they are creating for our customers and the wider world."
The tender offer was led by Wellington and T. Rowe Price, with participation from existing backers including Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed, ICONIQ, D.E. Shaw, Evantic, DISRUPTIVE, and Alkeon, as well as new investors such as EQT, Goldman Sachs, GIC, OTPP, Sapphire Ventures, and BDT & MSD. As reported by The Economic Times, unlike conventional fundraising rounds, a tender offer allows employees and existing shareholders to sell their stocks to investors, providing liquidity without raising new capital. The company now employs more than 800 people.
The company's voice technology now facilitates over 15 million conversations weekly across diverse applications, representing a three-fold increase from February levels. According to The Economic Times, ElevenAgents have tripled their Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) over the same window, with enterprise now accounting for 55% of total revenue. Voice agents resolve issues 31% faster than chat agents on average, as reported by ElevenLabs. Co-founder and CEO Mati Staniszewski noted rapid adoption by enterprises and governments deploying expressive voice agents for consumers and citizens.
Founded in 2022 by Piotr Dabkowski and Mati Staniszewski, ElevenLabs develops AI voice tools including technology that converts text into speech. As reported by The Economic Times, the company's models can speak, listen and translate in more than 90 languages used by over 5.5 billion people. The surge in AI agent investments reflects growing business adoption of the technology for automating customer service and routine back-office tasks, with the company positioning itself as shifting from a text-to-speech vendor to an enterprise agent platform.
