Voice AI company ElevenLabs has appointed former OpenAI VP of Enterprise Sales Ashley Kramer as its first Chief Revenue Officer, overseeing global revenue and partnership ecosystems to promote voice interaction products to enterprises.

During her tenure at OpenAI, enterprise revenue surpassed consumer revenue. She has also worked at GitLab, Alteryx, Tableau, Oracle, and NASA. CEO Mati Staniszewski stated that enterprise clients contributed over half of the revenue this year, officially reported at 55%, up from 40% last year, marking a structural turning point. She noted that if AI voices are mechanical or unable to understand intent, users will not trust them with issues.

The company announced in July that its annual recurring revenue exceeded $600 million. Named clients include Meta, Stripe, Deutsche Telekom, and Revolut, along with Klarna and Hasbro; Kramer's statement upon joining indicated that the product has entered approximately 69% of the Fortune 500. Founded by Poles and operating in London, the Polish government invested about $11 million this year. The EU AI Act Article 50 requires the identification of market synthetic audio systems by December 2.

In February 2026, Sequoia led a $500 million Series D round, valuing the company at $11 billion, with investors including a16z, Iconiq, BlackRock, and Nvidia Ventures. The company is discussing employee stock transfers with investors, aiming for a valuation of about $22 billion, nearly doubling from the Series D round; in September 2025, employee transfers were conducted at a valuation of $6.6 billion. Management stated they are preparing for an IPO within two to three years and considering a dual listing in Warsaw.

In terms of competition, high computing costs and low-cost open-source voice models from companies like Alibaba are diverting the mid-to-low end market. ElevenLabs is deploying solutions across the entire customer service, sales, marketing, and operations process, binding voice assets with a creator revenue-sharing network. Kramer is responsible for transitioning the lab's sales system to voice agent contracts.

In market mechanisms, buyers are enterprises looking to standardize customer service and brand voice, while sellers are voice model companies exchanging contracts for conversion rates with former OpenAI sales leaders. The driving force is the shift in revenue structure from creator tools to enterprise recurring revenue, as well as the revaluation of secondary transfers. Funds are moving from enterprise software budgets into API and seat costs, with employee stocks being realized through transfers. Beneficiaries are sales organizations that can lock in long-term contracts and early shareholders, while those under pressure rely on consumer-level usage and face price competition from open-source alternatives.

Source: Public Information