Voice AI company ElevenLabs announced today that it has raised $500 million in a new funding round led by Sequoia Capital, which was an investor in the final secondary round of the startup via competition. Sequoia partner Andrew Reed joins the firm’s board of directors.
The startup is now valued at $11 billion, three times its valuation last round in January 2025. Earlier in the year, the Financial Times reported that the startup was trying to raise that valuation.
The company said existing investor a16z quadrupled its investment amount and Iconiq, which led the latest round, tripled it. Some previous investors including BroadLight, NFDG, Valor Capital, AMP Coalition and Smash Capital also participated in the round. New investors for the funding were Lightspeed Venture Partners, Evantic Capital and Bond.
ElevenLabs said it will reveal some investors later in February, who may be strategic partners. The company has raised over $781 million to date. It said it will use the funding for research and product development, along with expansion into international markets such as India, Japan, Singapore, Brazil and Mexico.
Company co-founder Mati Staniszewski said ElevenLabs can work on agents beyond voice and incorporate video. In January, the company announced a partnership with LTX to produce audio-to-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-world experiences. This funding helps us move beyond voice alone to transform the way we interact with technology altogether. We plan to expand our creative offering – helping creators combine best-in-class audio with our agents to create action, video and representatives, he said in a statement.
The company saw good growth momentum as it ended the year at $330 million ARR. In an interview with Bloomberg earlier this year, Staniszewski said it took ElevenLabs five months to reach $200 million to $300 million in ARR.
Voice AI model providers are an attractive target for investors and large technology companies. In January, rival Deepgram raised $130 million from AVP at a valuation of $1.3 billion. Meanwhile, Google has hired top talent from voice modeling company Hume AI, including CEO Alan Cowen.
