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.
Published:
January 30, 2025