Voice AI startup ElevenLabs, which translated Zelensky's interview with Lex Friedman, raises $180 million
The company tripled its valuation to $3.3 billion.
The company tripled its valuation to $3.3 billion.
ElevenLabs, a startup that offers tools for creating voices using artificial intelligence, has raised $180 million in a new round of funding, Reuters reports .
This tripled the company's valuation to $3.3 billion. The Series C funding round was co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Iconiq Growth with additional new investors NEA, World Innovation Lab, Valor, Endeavor Catalyst Fund, and Lunate.
The company plans to use the funding to expand its research into more expressive and controllable voice AI, create new products, and expand tools for developers and enterprises.
In June 2023, the company raised $19 million in investment: the Series A round was led by the American venture capital fund Andreessen Horowitz, ex-CEO of GitHub Nat Friedman, and ex-head of the AI department at the business incubator Y Combinator Daniel Gross; the company's value was then estimated at $100 million. In January 2024, the startup managed to "raise" $80 million in investment. At that time, the company's valuation reached $1.1 billion.
Recall that ElevenLabs, headquartered in New York, was founded in 2022 by ex-Google ML engineer Piotr Dabkowski and former Palantir deployment strategist Mati Staniszewski. The idea for the creation arose from a desire to improve the quality of dubbing: Piotr and Mati hated the poor dubbing of Hollywood films as children.
In October 2023, ElevenLabs added support for over 20 languages, including Ukrainian, Polish, Hindi, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, and Arabic. In 2024, the company expanded its product line by adding tools for speech generation, voice design, sound effects, and AI dubbing in 32 languages.
In early 2025, ElevenLabs technology translated a 3-hour interview between President Volodymyr Zelensky and famous US blogger Lex Friedman. The conversation can be watched and listened to in three languages simultaneously — English, Russian, and Ukrainian.
Russia used ElevenLabs AI vote generator to undermine European support for Ukraine
Russia used ElevenLabs AI vote generator to undermine European support for Ukraine
AI-powered dubbing startup ElevenLabs adds Ukrainian language support
AI-powered dubbing startup ElevenLabs adds Ukrainian language support
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ElevenLabs’ $180M Series C (putting the company at about a $3.3B valuation) shows how quickly voice AI is scaling, while their AI dubbing of Zelensky’s three-hour interview into English, Russian and Ukrainian really demonstrates the tech’s power — great for accessibility but also a reminder we need careful guardrails around misuse. If you need human interpreters or certified interpreting support alongside AI tools, this service could be a useful complement: https://www.translation.pk/interpreters.html.