AI Voice Company ElevenLabs Valuation Doubles to $22 Billion
Voice company ElevenLabs has completed a $300 million sale of existing shares, raising its valuation to $22 billion, approximately double that of the last round in February. Co-founders Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dabkowski have thus been listed as billionaires.
The transaction was led by Wellington and T. Rowe Price, with buyers including first-time participants Goldman Sachs, Singapore's sovereign fund GIC, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, EQT, Sapphire Ventures, and BDT & MSD. Existing shareholders such as Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed, and ICONIQ also participated. The shares came from existing investors and employees, and the funds do not enter the company.
This is the third employee transfer since September 2025: at that time, $100 million was transferred at a valuation of $6.6 billion; another $100 million was transferred during the Series D round. The first round of financing in February raised $500 million, led by Sequoia, with a valuation of $11 billion. The company was valued at $9 million when it was founded in 2022.
Staniszewski stated that the transfer aims to attract long-term institutional funding and allow employees to realize some value while competing for researchers. He did not specify whether he sold shares. The company hopes to be ready for an IPO in the next 2 to 2.5 years. In September, they hired a financial officer who previously took Adyen public. Corporate clients account for about 55% of revenue, and ElevenAgents handle over 15 million conversations weekly, tripling since February, with recurring revenue also more than tripling during the same period.
The two are high school classmates from Poland, having left their jobs at Palantir and Google to start the company full-time in 2022 with their savings. The company now has over 800 employees, up from 530 in May. They also released Eleven v4 and v4 Turbo during the same period. The $22 billion valuation is about four times the $5.4 billion valuation of music competitor Suno in June, and close to Mistral's approximately $24 billion.
The buyers are pension and asset management institutions, while the sellers are employees and early shareholders. The event was driven by a liquidity window, not a one-time revenue recognition from new product income. Funds flowed from venture capital accounts to secondary equity, benefiting redeemable employees and the company receiving institutional pricing, while putting pressure on voice and music generation competitors that still rely on pilots and lack corporate dialogue volume.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
Staniszewski and Dabkowski met in high school in Poland, with the former working at Palantir and the latter in machine learning at Google before leaving their jobs in 2022 with their savings. The first round had a valuation of $9 million, and the product expanded from text-to-speech to sound effects and ElevenMusic. Forbes estimated each of them at about 15% during the last round's $6.6 billion valuation, listing them as billionaires; this time he declined to specify whether he sold shares.
The capital path separates primary financing from secondary liquidity through three employee transfers. In February, $500 million went into the company, while this time $300 million went into the sellers' accounts. The new buyers are not seed funds betting on prototypes but rather Wellington, T. Rowe, GIC, and Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. The company uses the transfer to retain talent while stating a 2 to 2.5-year window for an IPO, having already brought in a financial officer who took Adyen public.
A direct comparison can be made with Suno. ElevenLabs is valued at $22 billion, while Suno was valued at $5.4 billion in June; the former has achieved 15 million corporate agent dialogues weekly, with corporate revenue at 55%, while the latter still resembles a generative tool. Another reference is Mistral at about $24 billion: European private tech valuations are inflated through equity financing, while ElevenLabs inflates its valuation through transfers, with money not entering the balance sheet.
Structurally, this represents a transfer of pricing power. Voice interfaces have shifted from being ancillary functions of cloud labs to becoming enterprise entry points that can be priced separately by pension funds. The doubling of valuation occurs through share sales rather than new R&D investments, indicating that buyers are purchasing dialogue volume and retention capability. If corporate agents continue to transition from pilots to regular sales and customer service, pricing power remains with companies that can scale voice; if copyright and imitation disputes tighten, secondary buyers are acquiring liquidity, not an endpoint.
ABAB News · Cognitive Laws
Secondary transfers pay employees, while primary financing sustains the company.
Valuation can double without entering accounts, as long as someone takes over.
Corporate dialogue volume can price better than model demonstrations.