Shaping the future of Audio: Our Investment in ElevenLabs
Empowering creators and businesses to bring their ideas to life

ElevenLabs co-founders Piotr Dąbkowski and Mati Staniszewski

Shaping the future of Audio: Our Investment in ElevenLabs

Empowering creators and businesses to bring their ideas to life

ElevenLabs co-founders Piotr Dąbkowski and Mati Staniszewski

Copy page URL to clipboard

Share on X

Share on LinkedIn

https://www.iconiqcapital.com/growth/insights/shaping-the-future-of-audio-our-investment-in-elevenlabs

Stay Ahead with ICONIQ Growth

From the moment ElevenLabs launched in early 2023, we were hooked. Audio has long been a cornerstone of human connection, but advancing its accessibility and creative potential has remained a complex challenge. Through the disruptive nature of AI, ElevenLabs, in our opinion, can redefine the audio space. We believe the step-change in synthetic voice quality – with clear articulation and talking speed, natural acoustics, expressive prosody, contextual adaptability, and even personality – will help catalyze a profound shift from human-based services to machine-based services in large, established end-markets like customer service, dubbing, audiobooks, podcasts, gaming and more. Not to mention, the creation of music, sound effects, and other creative audio endeavors can be transformed and democratized by generative AI capabilities.

Today, we’re excited to announce our partnership with ElevenLabs by leading their Series C alongside existing investor Andreessen Horowitz to support the company’s pioneering research and vision to shape the future of communication.

The inspiration for ElevenLabs came early in life for its founders Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dabkowski. As childhood friends growing up in Poland, they suffered through years of watching poorly dubbed American films, which inspired them to make content universally accessible to everyone in any language and any voice.

Armed with deep domain experience honed at Palantir and Google and this singular focus on the audio modality, they launched their first product with immediate and broad acclaim. In less than two years we are seeing the impact - the platform has become a trusted tool for millions of users, including employees at over 60% of Fortune 500 companies  and a growing list of enterprise partners such as Nvidia, ESPN, Perplexity, Aston Martin Aramco F1, Star Sports, Harper Collins and major media outlets like Time, New York Post, the Washington Post and more. We believe all of this underscores ElevenLabs’ ability to deliver powerful solutions for consumers, creators, developers, and enterprises. 

Many in the industry view ElevenLabs as a market leader, and their ascent has earned them a seat at the table in conversations with content and IP owners (movie studios, record labels, celebrities), data providers, blue-chip enterprises, and other industry stakeholders, helping to deepen their moat. Leveraging this market position, they’ve continued to invest heavily in research, building impressive models that push the boundaries on quality and control for text-to-speech, text-to-sound effects, voice changing, voice cloning, voice isolating, and voice design according to many customers. Importantly, we believe ElevenLabs has shown their dedication to delivering this innovation with a commitment to responsibility, emphasizing safety, accountability, and collaboration with key stakeholders.

The company has also demonstrated what we view as extraordinary product velocity, introducing an expansive audio platform that combines technical sophistication with ease of use. Their products include a conversational AI voice agent platform, an editor for dubbing across 29 languages, a studio for turning long form content into voiceovers, and a Reader app that allows users to consume written content in a natural voice on the go. The result is a comprehensive ecosystem that caters to diverse use cases. 

At ICONIQ Growth, we have been active in the software space for over a decade and generally haven’t seen such strong momentum and customer pull this early on. We’ve heard this excitement and enterprise validation firsthand from many Fortune 100 enterprise CEOs and individual creators. Our network of individuals in art, entertainment, media and music has helped deepen our beliefs about AI’s potential to enrich content and elevate the consumer experience and fueled our excitement in ElevenLabs. 

We believe ElevenLabs is pioneering the future of audio, empowering creators and businesses to bring their ideas to life in ways that may have been previously unimaginable. In our opinion, Mati, Piotr, and the ElevenLabs team have set a new standard for AI-driven audio, blending visionary thinking with relentless execution. We are thrilled to support the team as they continue to shape the audio experience of tomorrow.

The ICONIQ Growth website does not present information relating to ICONIQ Capital, its investment funds, or its advisory business and should not be consulted for any advisory purposes. The ICONIQ Growth content is intended for the use of company founders and executives.

Notes

ICONIQ Growth is a trading name of certain ICONIQ businesses, including ICONIQ Partners (UK) LLP. ICONIQ Partners (UK) LLP(Registration Number: 973080) is an appointed representative of Kroll Securities Ltd. (Registration Number: 466588) which is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. ICONIQ Partners (UK) LLP is a limited liability partnership whose members are ICONIQ Capital (UK) Ltd, Seth Pierrepont and Lou Thorne, and it is registered in England and Wales and has its registered office at 27 Soho Square, London W1D 3QR. ICONIQ Partners (UK)LLP acts as an adviser to ICONIQ Capital LLC.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this presentation are those of ICONIQ Growth ("ICONIQ" or the "firm"), are the result of proprietary research, may be subjective, and may not be relied upon in making an investment decision. 

 This presentation is for general information purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.  This presentation must not be relied upon in connection with any investment decision.  The information in this presentation is not intended to and does not constitute financial, accounting, tax, legal, investment, consulting or other professional advice or services.  Nothing in this presentation is or should be construed as an offer, invitation or solicitation to engage in any investment activity or transaction, including an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities which should only be made pursuant to definitive offering documents and subscription agreements, including without limitation, any investment fund or investment product referenced herein.  

Any reproduction or distribution of this presentation in whole or in part, or the disclosure of any of its contents, without the prior consent of ICONIQ, is strictly unauthorized.  

This presentation may contain forward-looking statements based on current plans, estimates and projections.  The recipient of this presentation ("you") are cautioned that a number of important factors could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, the forward-looking statements.  The numbers, figures and case studies included in this presentation have been included for purposes of illustration only, and no assurance can be given that the actual results of ICONIQ or any of its partners and affiliates will correspond with the results contemplated in the presentation.  No information is contained herein with respect to conflicts of interest, which may be significant.  The portfolio companies and other parties mentioned herein may reflect a selective list of the prior investments made by ICONIQ.  

Certain of the economic and market information contained herein may have been obtained from published sources and/or prepared by other parties.  While such sources are believed to be reliable, none of ICONIQ or any of its affiliates and partners, employees and representatives assume any responsibility for the accuracy of such information.  

All of the information in the presentation is presented as of the date made available to you (except as otherwise specified), and is subject to change without notice, and may not be current or may have changed (possibly materially) between the date made available to you and the date actually received or reviewed by you.  ICONIQ assumes no obligation to update or otherwise revise any information, projections, forecasts or estimates contained in the presentation, including any revisions to reflect changes in economic or market conditions or other circumstances arising after the date the items were made available to you or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.  

For avoidance of doubt, ICONIQ is not acting as an adviser or fiduciary in any respect in connection with providing this presentation and no relationship shall arise between you and ICONIQ as a result of this presentation being made available to you.  

ICONIQ is a diversified financial services firm and has direct client relationships with persons that may become limited partners of ICONIQ funds.  Notwithstanding that a person may be referred to herein as a "client" of the firm, no limited partner of any fund will, in its capacity as such, be a client of ICONIQ.  There can be no assurance that the investments made by any ICONIQ fund will be profitable or will equal the performance of prior investments made by persons described in this presentation. 

Any information in this presentation is directed at, and intended for, only persons who are experienced institutional or professional investors (“professional investors”) as defined by applicable law and regulation.  Any person that is not a professional investor is not an intended recipient of this presentation and the matters discussed herein.

ICONIQ Growth is a trading name of certain ICONIQ businesses, including ICONIQ Partners (UK) LLP. ICONIQ Partners (UK) LLP (Registration Number: 973080) is an appointed representative of Kroll Securities Ltd. (Registration Number: 466588) which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. ICONIQ Partners (UK) LLP is a limited liability partnership whose members are ICONIQ Capital (UK) Ltd, Seth Pierrepont and Lou Thorne, and it is registered in England and Wales and has its registered office at 27 Soho Square, London W1D 3QR. ICONIQ Partners (UK) LLP acts as an adviser to ICONIQ Capital LLC

Unless otherwise indicated, the views expressed in this presentation are those of ICONIQ Growth (“ICONIQ" or the “Firm"), are the result of proprietary research, may be subjective, and may not be relied upon in making an investment decision. Information used in this presentation was obtained from numerous sources. Certain of these companies are portfolio companies of ICONIQ Growth. ICONIQ Growth does not make any representations or warranties as to the accuracy of the information obtained from these sources.

This presentation is for general information purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. This presentation must not be relied upon in connection with any investment decision. The information in this presentation is not intended to and does not constitute financial, accounting, tax, legal, investment, consulting or other professional advice or services. Nothing in this presentation is or should be construed as an offer, invitation or solicitation to engage in any investment activity or transaction, including an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities which should only be made pursuant to definitive offering documents and subscription agreements, including without limitation, any investment fund or investment product referenced herein.

Any reproduction or distribution of this presentation in whole or in part, or the disclosure of any of its contents, without the prior consent of ICONIQ, is strictly unauthorized.

This presentation may contain forward-looking statements based on current plans, estimates and projections. The recipient of this presentation ("you") are cautioned that a number of important factors could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, the forward-looking statements. The numbers, figures and case studies included in this presentation have been included for purposes of illustration only, and no assurance can be given that the actual results of ICONIQ or any of its partners and affiliates will correspond with the results contemplated in the presentation. No information is contained herein with respect to conflicts of interest, which may be significant. The portfolio companies and other parties mentioned herein may reflect a selective list of the prior investments made by ICONIQ.

Certain of the economic and market information contained herein may have been obtained from published sources and/or prepared by other parties. While such sources are believed to be reliable, none of ICONIQ or any of its affiliates and partners, employees and representatives assume any responsibility for the accuracy of such information.

All of the information in the presentation is presented as of the date made available to you (except as otherwise specified), and is subject to change without notice, and may not be current or may have changed (possibly materially) between the date made available to you and the date actually received or reviewed by you. ICONIQ assumes no obligation to update or otherwise revise any information, projections, forecasts or estimates contained in the presentation, including any revisions to reflect changes in economic or market conditions or other circumstances arising after the date the items were made available to you or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. Numbers or amounts herein may increase or decrease as a result of currency fluctuations.

For avoidance of doubt, ICONIQ is not acting as an adviser or fiduciary in any respect in connection with providing this presentation and no relationship shall arise between you and ICONIQ as a result of this presentation being made available to you.

ICONIQ is a diversified financial services firm and has direct client relationships with persons that may become limited partners of ICONIQ funds. Notwithstanding that a person may be referred to herein as a "client" of the firm, no limited partner of any fund will, in its capacity as such, be a client of ICONIQ. There can be no assurance that the investments made by any ICONIQ fund will be profitable or will equal the performance of prior investments made by persons described in this presentation.

Any information in this presentation is directed at, and intended for, only persons who are experienced institutional or professional investors (“professional investors”) as defined by applicable law and regulation. Any person that is not a professional investor is not an intended recipient of this presentation and the matters discussed herein.

ICONIQ Growth is a trading name of certain ICONIQ businesses, including ICONIQ Partners (UK) LLP. ICONIQ Partners (UK) LLP (Registration Number: 973080) is an appointed representative of Kroll Securities Ltd. (Registration Number: 466588) which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. ICONIQ Partners (UK) LLP is a limited liability partnership whose members are ICONIQ Capital (UK) Ltd, Seth Pierrepont and Lou Thorne, and it is registered in England and Wales and has its registered office at 27 Soho Square, London W1D 3QR. ICONIQ Partners (UK) LLP acts as an adviser to ICONIQ Capital LLC