{"text":[[{"start":8.45,"text":"London-based AI voice start-up ElevenLabs has leapt into the ranks of the world’s most valuable AI labs after a share sale doubled its price tag to $22bn. "}],[{"start":19.35,"text":"Existing investors and employees at the company, which develops realistic speech-generation software, have sold $300mn worth of stock in a tender led by Wellington and T Rowe Price. "}],[{"start":31.25,"text":"The resulting $22bn valuation places ElevenLabs among the top 10 most valuable AI labs outside China, according to FT analysis of figures from Dealroom, at a time of frenzied AI dealmaking in the private markets."}],[{"start":47.15,"text":"The new round doubles ElevenLabs’ last valuation in its primary financing in February, when it raised $500mn from Silicon Valley venture firms including Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Iconiq. FT Ventures, the corporate venture arm of the FT, is also an investor in ElevenLabs. "}],[{"start":66.6,"text":"The deal puts ElevenLabs’ price tag at a similar level to France’s Mistral, which raised €3bn in Europe’s largest-ever private tech financing this month at a €21bn ($24bn) valuation."}],[{"start":81.69999999999999,"text":"Mati Staniszewski, ElevenLabs’ chief executive, told the FT that the secondary transaction allowed it to bring in “long-term institutional investors”, including Goldman Sachs and Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC, as well as helping with the fierce battle to hire and retain AI researchers. "}],[{"start":101.24999999999999,"text":"“We are competing for talent with the biggest AI labs,” he said. “We need to stay competitive in that market, too. So of course, the secondary offers help with that.” "}],[{"start":111.09999999999998,"text":"ElevenLabs’ management has also sold a “small amount” in employee stock, Staniszewski said, after receiving “so many acquisition offers over the years”. He declined to comment on whether he had sold stock in this deal. "}],[{"start":123.79999999999998,"text":"“We want to build for the long term,” he said. “We would like to be IPO ready over the next two or two and a half years. Whether we IPO depends on so many other factors.” "}],[{"start":134.29999999999998,"text":"ElevenLabs was founded by Staniszewski and fellow Polish entrepreneur Piotr Dąbkowski in 2022, when it was valued at $9mn. Nvidia became a strategic investor in 2025. "}],[{"start":147.74999999999997,"text":"Its largest customers include telecoms groups Deutsche Telekom and KPN, the governments of Ukraine and Greece, and fintech groups Stripe, Revolut and Klarna. "}],[{"start":157.94999999999996,"text":"The secondary financing comes on the heels of ElevenLabs’ release of its fourth-generation model, which Staniszewski said brought a “step change” improvement especially for longer-running conversations. "}],[{"start":169.64999999999995,"text":"Unlike many AI software groups, ElevenLabs develops its own models and trains them on its own computing infrastructure, rather than relying on technology from OpenAI, Google or Anthropic and cloud computing systems from Microsoft or Amazon. It works with so-called hyperscalers to serve those models to customers around the world. "}],[{"start":188.99999999999994,"text":"ElevenLabs has offices in 20 countries and has more than doubled its headcount in the last year to 800 staff. Its main offices are in London, where it employs around 200 people, but as with many European tech companies looking to attract investment from the US, the company is incorporated in Delaware. "}],[{"start":206.79999999999995,"text":"“We want to build a global company which requires an extremely local presence,” Staniszewski said. To develop convincing interactions with AI voice systems, he said, “you really need that local nuance”. "}],[{"start":226.19999999999996,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1790826404_3575.mp3"}