ElevenLabs Doubles to US$22B as It Pays Staff to Stay Ahead of an IPO

ElevenLabs, the voice AI company based in London and New York, completed a US$300 million tender offer for employees at a US$22 billion valuation, the company said on September 30. The price doubles the US$11 billion valuation set in February, when it raised a US$500 million Series D led by Sequoia Capital. The company is led by co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Mati Staniszewski, who started it in 2022 with Piotr Dabkowski.

The deal was co-led by Wellington and T. Rowe Price, and brought in new investors including EQT, Goldman Sachs, GIC, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Sapphire Ventures and BDT & MSD. Existing backers such as Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed, Iconiq and D.E. Shaw also took part. No new money goes to the company: current and former staff sell vested shares to investors who plan to hold them through an eventual public listing. It is the company's second tender in a year, after a US$100 million sale at US$6.6 billion in September 2025.

Market Context

ElevenLabs builds AI that generates realistic voices, sound effects and music, and sells voice agents that companies use for customer service and other calls. The company said its voice agents now handle more than 15 million conversations a week, three times February's level, and that enterprise clients account for 55% of revenue. It reported US$500 million in annual recurring revenue in May, up from about US$350 million at the end of 2025, which puts the new price at more than 40 times that figure. The company has more than 800 employees.

Employee tender offers have become a standard tool for top AI startups that want to keep talent without rushing to go public. OpenAI closed a US$7 billion secondary sale at an US$852 billion valuation in August, and Anthropic has pursued a similar route. Voice AI is also drawing heavy funding, with competitors like Deepgram raising US$130 million at a US$1.3 billion valuation in January, while big tech players such as Google both partner and compete with ElevenLabs.

What Stands Out

"AI should interact with people the way we interact with each other. Getting this right will help ensure AI diffuses widely across the economy." — Mati Staniszewski, Co-founder and CEO, ElevenLabs

Regional Relevance

For the United States, the deal shows how American institutional money is getting exposure to the AI boom before IPOs happen. Wellington and T. Rowe Price, two of the largest U.S. asset managers, are buying shares in the private market, a sign that mutual funds and pension managers now see late-stage AI startups as part of their core strategy. It also adds pressure on the talent market: when rivals can turn equity into cash, U.S. labs and startups have to match those offers to keep engineers.

For the United Kingdom and Europe, ElevenLabs is one of the region's most valuable startups and a rare European AI company competing at the top of its category. Founded by two Polish entrepreneurs and run from London, it gives the region a reference case for building a global AI business at home. The test now is whether it lists in London, New York or both, a choice that will shape the debate over Europe's ability to keep its biggest tech companies.

The Other Side

Is a 40x revenue multiple justified? Growth is fast, but the price assumes ElevenLabs keeps tripling usage. If voice agent demand slows or prices fall, later investors could face a lower valuation at the IPO.

Can it hold off big tech? Google, OpenAI and other large players are building their own voice models. ElevenLabs' edge in quality and languages could narrow as voice becomes a standard feature in general AI platforms.

Does liquidity reduce the urgency to go public? Regular tenders keep staff happy and delay the need for an IPO. That gives the company more control, but it also means less public disclosure about its margins and costs for longer.

Sources & Transparency

• AI voice startup ElevenLabs doubles valuation to $22B
• ElevenLabs' valuation doubles to $22BN, as completes $300M employee tender offer
• ElevenLabs Closes $300M Employee Tender Offer at $22B Valuation
• ElevenLabs Valued at $22B as AI Voice Agent Demand Surges
• ElevenLabs lists BlackRock, Jamie Foxx, and Eva Longoria as new investors
• ElevenLabs in talks for tender offer at $22 billion valuation
• OpenAI closes $7B share sale at $852B valuation ahead of IPO