ElevenLabs
A London voice AI lab that turned lifelike speech into a business selling AI phone and chat agents. Staff have sold shares three times, most recently at $22 billion.
ElevenLabs, Sep 30, 2026- Valuation
- $22B set by a staff share sale in Sept 2026, double the $11B Series D in Feb.
- Raised
- $781M across five rounds by Feb 2026; later Series D closes were not sized.
- Revenue
- ~$600M ARR the CEO's figure in Sept 2026, up from $330M at the end of 2025.
- Liquidity
- 3 tenders $100M (Sept 2025), $100M (May 2026) and $300M (Sept 2026) of staff shares bought.
- AI
- Is the product it trains its own speech models; agents now handle 15M+ conversations a week.
- Watch
- Voice rights named in May 2026 Illinois biometric privacy suits over training on voices.
- Hiring
- 91 → 110 remote listings since Oct 10.
Enterprise agents now pay most of the bills.
ElevenLabs sells three things: ElevenAgents (voice and chat agents for support and sales), ElevenCreative (speech, music and dubbing tools for creators), and ElevenAPI (models other apps build on). Enterprise accounts are 55% of revenue; the rest is small businesses, developers and creators on subscriptions and usage.
ElevenLabs, Sep 30, 2026- 1Research, product and selling under one roofIt trains its own models (Eleven v4, Eleven Realtime) and sells them as finished agents; its tender lead called that combination a structural advantage.ElevenLabs, Sep 30, 2026
- 2Range of voices and languagesRealtime agent models cover 90+ languages and any of 17,000+ voices in its library, with first audio in about 0.6 seconds.ElevenLabs, Oct 20, 2026
- 3Already inside big companiesUsed by five of the ten largest tech companies, five of the ten largest insurers and four of the ten largest telecoms, plus Stripe and Deutsche Telekom.ElevenLabs, Sep 30, 2026
- ElevenLabs$22.0BEmployee tender, Sep 30
- Sierra$15.0Bprivate, May 4
- NICE$6.63Blisted, Oct 30 close
- Decagon$4.50Bprivate, Jan 30
- SoundHound AI$1.90Blisted, Oct 30 close
Private values are the last reported round; they can be stale. Listed values are market value. Bars start at zero.
Every round, and what its terms give away.
ElevenLabs is private, so there is no share price. What its investors paid, and on what terms, is the closest thing to one.
- $22.0B
- latest valuation, Employee tender Sep 30
- $781M
- raised in all
- $600M
- ARR, as of Sep 24
- 800
- employees, as reported
Not disclosed. The CEO said he does not mind margins going lower to win share.
TechCrunch, Sep 24, 2026 (ARR, margins); ElevenLabs (staff, raised)Post-money valuations as reported. The line starts at zero. Rounds without a reported valuation are left off.
- Sep 30Employee tender$300M at $22.0BLed by Wellington and T. Rowe PriceSecondary sale of staff shares; no new money to the company. EQT, Goldman Sachs, GIC and OTPP joined as new holders.ElevenLabs, Sep 30, 2026
- Jun 18Strategic stakeLed by Government of Poland (Vinci, BGK Group)Size and terms not disclosed.ElevenLabs, Jun 18, 2026
- May 5Series D (third close) and tenderLed by BlackRock, Wellington, D.E. Shaw, Schroders, NVIDIA among new investorsClose size not disclosed; came with a $100M staff tender, valuation not stated.ElevenLabs, May 5, 2026
- Feb 4Series D$500M at $11.0BLed by Sequoia Capital. About 5% of the company, if all new sharesa16z and ICONIQ took more than their share; Lightspeed, Evantic and BOND new.ElevenLabs, Feb 4, 2026
- Sep 8Employee tender$100M at $6.60BLed by Sequoia and ICONIQStaff share sale at double the Series C price.ElevenLabs, Sep 8, 2025
- Jan 30Series C$180M at $3.30BLed by a16z and ICONIQ Growth. About 5% of the company, if all new sharesElevenLabs, Jan 30, 2025
- Jan 22Series B$80MLed by a16z, Nat Friedman and Daniel GrossCompany said only that it reached unicorn status; about $1.1B per later reports.ElevenLabs, Jan 22, 2024
- Jun 20Series A$19M at $99MLed by a16z, Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross. About 19% of the company, if all new sharesCrunchbase News, Jan 22, 2024
- Down or flat round?No. Series D at $11B was 3.3x the $3.3B Series C, and the Sept 2026 tender doubled that to $22B.ElevenLabs, Sep 30, 2026Clear
- How much the last round sold$500M at $11B post-money: about 4.5% of the company.ElevenLabs, Feb 4, 2026Clear
- Time since the last raiseAbout nine months since the Series D; a third close followed in May 2026. No sign of a cash squeeze.ElevenLabs, May 5, 2026Clear
- Unusual terms (preferences, ratchets, warrants)?Not disclosed for any round, and no press report of structured terms was found.ElevenLabs, Feb 4, 2026Open
- Who ledSequoia led the Series D, with new outside funds joining; the $22B tender was led by outsiders Wellington and T. Rowe Price.ElevenLabs, Sep 30, 2026Clear
- Can staff sell shares?Yes, three tenders in 13 months: $100M at $6.6B, $100M in May 2026, $300M at $22B.ElevenLabs, Sep 30, 2026Clear
- Layoffs in the last 12 months?None found. Headcount went from 530 in May 2026 to over 800 by Sept 2026.ElevenLabs, Sep 30, 2026Clear
Clear: checked, nothing found. Flag: found, with the source. Open: could not be checked.
No filing reported. CEO says it is preparing for a listing in the coming years; a reported 2028 target was not confirmed.
- Sep 30, at $22.0B. $300M, led by Wellington and T. Rowe Price
- May 5. $100M alongside the Series D third close; valuation not stated
- Sep 8, at $6.60B. $100M, led by Sequoia and ICONIQ
What the record says, and what we think it means.
The fact is the source's. The read, in italics, is ours.
- 01Good
Staff sold $300M of shares at $22 billion.
ElevenLabs, Sep 30, 2026Closed Sept 30, 2026, led by Wellington and T. Rowe Price, at double the Feb 2026 Series D price.
A real cash price for employee stock, set by mutual funds that also buy public shares. It is a secondary sale, so it carries less disclosure than a priced round.
- 02Good
Recurring revenue roughly doubled in nine months.
TechCrunch, Sep 24, 2026Over $330M ARR at the end of 2025, past $500M by May 2026, about $600M per the CEO in Sept 2026.
Fast growth for a company this size, and mostly from enterprise agents. ARR is the company's own measure, not audited revenue.
- 03Watch
Sued in Illinois over training on people's voices.
Loevy & Loevy case pageIn May 2026 voice actors, podcasters and narrators filed biometric privacy (BIPA) suits against ElevenLabs and others, seeking class status. The case page lists it as active.
Allegations only. BIPA carries per-person damages, so a loss could be costly; a licensed-data push, like the UMG deal, is the likely response.
- 04Neutral
Hired a CFO who took Adyen public.
ElevenLabs, Sep 8, 2026Ethan Tandowsky, Adyen's CFO and part of its 2018 listing, joined in Sept 2026. A Chief Revenue Officer, Ashley Kramer, joined the same month.
The classic hire before an IPO. The CEO would not confirm a reported 2028 listing target.
- 05Watch
Willing to give up margin for market share.
TechCrunch, Sep 24, 2026The CEO would not discuss gross margins and said he does not mind them going lower.
Voice is getting cheaper as rivals catch up. Growth bought with price cuts is worth watching before any IPO.
- 06Watch
A customer turned into a competitor.
TechCrunch, Sep 24, 2026Decagon built its voice product on ElevenLabs and now competes with it in support agents.
Selling both the models and the finished agent means some API customers are also rivals. That tension tends to grow.
- 07Good
First major-label music deal.
ElevenLabs, Sep 10, 2026A multi-year licence and product partnership with Universal Music Group, announced Sept 10, 2026, for a licensed fan music platform.
Licensed data is a defence against lawsuits and opens music revenue, an area where unlicensed rivals have been sued.
- 08Neutral
The Polish government is now a shareholder.
ElevenLabs, Jun 18, 2026Poland invested through the state bank group BGK in June 2026; size not disclosed. The founders are Polish.
A friendly state backer, and a hint at the dual Warsaw listing the CEO has floated. Little effect on staff equity.
What the hiring data says.
We save every company's roles, pay by team and level, AI share and churn every day, so each month this page can say more. Sparklines use their own scale.
Can AI agents do business with ElevenLabs?
We checked the agent payment programs, developer docs and site rules an AI assistant would meet.
Built for agents. Its own MCP server, agent docs, and an open robots.txt.
Still Remote read- YesAn MCP server agents can callHosted at api.elevenlabs.io/v1/mcp with OAuth sign-in, and listed in the Claude Desktop connector directory. Assistants can create and manage agents.checked Oct 31, 2026
- YesIts agents can use outside toolsElevenAgents connect to external MCP servers, and hand off with Amazon Connect through its A2A agent integration.checked Oct 31, 2026
- YesWorks with OpenAI's realtime standardEleven Realtime accepts OpenAI Realtime API clients by changing the endpoint and model name.ElevenLabs, Oct 20, 2026
- YesDocs that AI tools can readllms.txt on both the main site and docs; docs tell agents to append .md for clean Markdown.checked Oct 31, 2026
- YesLets AI crawlers read its siteNo AI bots named or blocked. Only app, admin and test paths are closed to all bots; careers pages are open.checked Oct 31, 2026
Where ElevenLabs puts AI to work.
- 1Humans label the data its models learn fromThe CEO says training is mostly about annotation: thousands of contract annotators mark what was said, how, and with what emotion, helped by voice coaches.TechCrunch, Sep 24, 2026
- 2It builds the models, then the agents on topEleven Realtime (Oct 2026) folds listening, reasoning and speaking into one model, sold inside its own agent platform and via API.ElevenLabs, Oct 20, 2026
- 3Growing headcount, not cutting itFrom 530 staff in May 2026 to over 800 by Sept, with 173 new California roles backed by a state tax credit.ElevenLabs, Jun 22, 2026; Sep 30, 2026
Fewer listings than on Sep 7, led by sales.
What ElevenLabs puts on its own channel.
Short videos from ElevenLabs's official YouTube channel, played here. We only use a channel that links demoday.elevenlabs.io and carries the company's name.
- Trick or treat, but make it a character swap1.8 thousand views
- Turn one product photo into a full set of UGC ads, instantly.2.8 thousand views
- Your videos won't sound like AI if you do this5.1 thousand views
- With Eleven v4 the voices respond to each other4.4 thousand views
- To all fanfiction authors2.2 thousand views
- From mood board to ad2.3 thousand views
- Try Recast in ElevenCreative4.2 thousand views
- Try Recast in ElevenCreative3.7 thousand views
What has to be true for $22 billion to hold?
The starting revenue is ElevenLabs's own reported figure. A way to think, not a forecast, and not investment advice.
At 37x, ElevenLabs needs $595 million of revenue to be worth $22 billion. Your world gets there with $1.2 billion, so the next round likely prices above the last.
$100,000 of equity valued at the $22.0B Employee tender price would be worth about $197,782 on paper in this world, before dilution from new rounds, taxes and vesting. Private shares only turn into cash at a sale, an IPO or a tender offer.
A way to think, not a forecast, and not investment advice.
ElevenLabs, Sep 30, 2026The signals, and which way they push.
- TailwindEnterprise agents are the engine.
Agent conversations tripled to 15M+ a week since Feb, agent ARR more than tripled, and enterprise is 55% of revenue.
- TailwindGetting ready to list.
An IPO-experienced CFO, a new CRO, and mutual funds buying in at $22B are the usual steps before going public.
- HeadwindRivals on both sides.
Agent startups Sierra ($15B) and Decagon ($4.5B) compete for the same support budgets, and Decagon was once a customer.
- HeadwindVoice rights are a live legal risk.
Illinois biometric suits filed May 2026 target training on voices without written consent.
Where ElevenLabs ends up, if we had to bet.
Our calls, not facts. Each one is tied to something that already happened, so you can judge the reasoning.
- 1
ElevenLabs is a listed company by 2031, possibly in New York and Warsaw.
Likely 72%IPOIt hired a CFO who took Adyen public and the CEO talks about building the foundation for a listing. Three tenders show staff need for liquidity that only a listing fully solves.
TechCrunch, Sep 2026; ElevenLabs CFO post - 2
A big tech company buys ElevenLabs.
Long shot 16%M&AAt $22B with revenue near $600M ARR the price is steep, and the founders keep raising rather than selling. Nothing about a sale has been reported.
ElevenLabs, Sep 30, 2026 - 3
Agents bring in most of ElevenLabs' revenue, with creator tools a minority.
Likely 72%ProductsAgent ARR tripled in seven months and enterprise is already 55% of revenue. Its newest models are built for agents first.
ElevenLabs, Sep 30, 2026 - 4
General AI labs make good voice a commodity, and ElevenLabs competes on platform, not model quality.
Coin flip 50%AIThe CEO expects model quality gaps to shrink over three to five years and accepts lower margins. Its OpenAI-compatible API shows it already plays on others' standards.
TechCrunch, Sep 24, 2026 - 5
Paying for voice and music data becomes a normal cost, settled through deals and lawsuits.
Coin flip 50%RegulationIt signed UMG and pays voice creators who license their voices, while BIPA suits test unlicensed training. Outcomes are years away.
ElevenLabs, Sep 2026; Loevy case page
Read by the Still Remote research agent on November 1, 2026 from the sources linked on this page. Facts and scenarios only, not investment advice.