Voice artificial intelligence company ElevenLabs said today that it has raised $500 million in a new funding round led by Sequoia Capital, which was an investor in the startup’s last secondary round through a tender process. Sequoia partner Andrew Reed joins the firm’s board of directors.
The startup is now valued at $11 billion, more than triple its valuation in its last round in January 2025. Earlier in the year, the Financial Times reported that the startup was looking to raise that valuation.
The company said existing investor a16z quadrupled the amount of its investment and Iconiq, which led the last round, tripled it. Some previous investors such as BroadLight, NFDG, Valor Capital, AMP Coalition and Smash Capital also participated in the round. New investors for the funding included Lightspeed Venture Partners, Evantic
Equity and Bonds.
ElevenLabs said it will disclose some investors that could be strategic partners later in February. The company has raised over $781 million to date. It said it will use the funds for product research and development, along with expansion into international markets such as India, Japan, Singapore, Brazil and Mexico.
Company co-founder Mati Staniszewski hinted that ElevenLabs could work on agents beyond voice and incorporate video. In January, the company announced a partnership with LTX to produce audio-video content.
“The intersection of models and products is critical – and our team has proven time and time again how to translate research into real experiences. This funding helps us go beyond voice alone to completely change the way we interact with technology. We plan to expand our Creative offering – helping creators combine our best-in-class audio with video and agents – enabling businesses to create agents that can speak, write and receive statements,” he said.
The company saw a good growth rate as it closed the year with an ARR of $330 million. In an interview with Bloomberg earlier this year, Staniszewski said it took ElevenLabs five months to reach $200 million to $300 million in ARR.
Providers of voice AI models are an attractive target for investors and large technology companies. In January, competitor Deepgram raised $130 million from AVP at a $1.3 billion valuation. Meanwhile, Google has hired top talent from voice modeling company Hume AI, including CEO Alan Cowen.