What ElevenLabs is
ElevenLabs is a leading AI voice and audio platform founded in 2022 by ex-Google and ex-Palantir engineers Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dąbkowski, delivering text-to-speech, voice cloning, dubbing, conversational agents, music, and sound effects through two product lines — ElevenCreative for content creation and ElevenAgents for customer experience — both built on the same research foundation and exposed to developers through ElevenAPI. The platform is used in production by enterprises including Cisco, NVIDIA, Salesforce and Stripe.
Funding snapshot
$500M funding round led by Sequoia Capital, announced 4 February 2026, at an $11B valuation (total raised to date over $781M). Co-founder Mati Staniszewski said ElevenLabs closed 2025 at $330M ARR. In September 2026 the company announced a multi-year strategic agreement with Universal Music Group.
Key features
- Eleven v3 expressive multilingual text-to-speech across 70+ languages
- Instant and Professional voice cloning from short audio samples
- ElevenAgents — low-latency conversational voice agents deployable on phone, chat, and WhatsApp
- AI Dubbing Studio with emotion-preserving translation across 20+ languages
- Eleven Music and SFX generation plus Voice Isolator and Voice Design
- Scribe v2 speech-to-text model covering 90+ languages, with Scribe v2 Realtime (~150ms latency) and Scribe v2 Medical variants
- ElevenCreative content platform covering studio projects, dubbing, voice isolation, sound effects, music, and image/video workflows
- Multi-year strategic agreement with Universal Music Group announced 10 September 2026, beginning with a licensed AI music creation platform
Where it lives
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Related reading
4 pieces from AIUnpacker on ElevenLabs
ElevenLabs Review 2025: Still Worth It in 2026?
ElevenLabs is one of the strongest AI voice platforms for realistic speech, dubbing, voice cloning, and creator audio, but commercial rights, consent, and usage limits need careful review.
Best ElevenLabs Alternatives in 2026
Verified ElevenLabs pricing on seven tiers and nine strong alternatives, including OpenAI Realtime, Google Cloud TTS, Azure Speech, Hume Octave, Cartesia Sonic, Speechify, Amazon Polly, Resemble AI, and open-source Kokoro.
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