AI voice start-up ElevenLabs hits $22B valuation
What's the story
AI voice start-up ElevenLabs has announced a major milestone in its growth journey. The company is letting employees cash out a part of their vested equity at a whopping $22 billion valuation. This is a massive jump from the $11 billion valuation it achieved after raising $500 million in February. The move comes as part of a larger trend among rapidly growing AI start-ups using employee liquidity as a retention strategy to keep talent from moving to competitors.
Tender details
$300 million employee tender offer allowed staff to sell shares
The recent $300 million employee tender offer allowed staff to sell their shares to investors.
It was co-led by Wellington and T. Rowe Price, two major institutional investors that invest in private companies with the intention of holding onto the stock after they go public.
The move comes as part of a growing trend among fast-growing AI startups that use employee liquidity as a retention tool to prevent staff from leaving for competitors.
Information
ElevenLabs is known for creating human voices
Founded in 2022, ElevenLabs has made a name for itself by creating hyper-realistic human voices and sound effects. The company's voice technology powers over 15 million conversations every week across different platforms. This is three times the level it was at in February.
Tech innovation
Company's voice agents can speak in over 90 languages
ElevenLabs's AI voice agents can speak, listen, and translate in over 90 languages spoken by more than 5.5 billion people.
The company's models are already being used by enterprises and governments to provide services to consumers and citizens.
"We're already seeing rapid adoption of expressive voice agents by enterprises and governments, who are deploying them in service of consumers and citizens," said Mati Staniszewski, co-founder and CEO of ElevenLabs.