ElevenLabs Nabs $80M Valued at $1.1 Billion in 18 Months

Co-led by a16z, Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross

Hey friends, what most caught my eye today is ElevenLabs’ $80M series B fundraising.

It is a company I have wanted to invest in since its day 1 launch, because there are tons of voice assets worth exploring but not yet. Here’s today's signal:

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ElevenLabs, a startup developing AI-powered tools for voice cloning, has closed an $80 million Series B funding round and valued it at $1.01B, bringing its total raised to $101M, in just 18 months.

This round was co-led by a16z, former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, and Daniel Gross, joined by Sequoia Capital, SV Angel, Smash Capital, BroadLight Capital and Credo Ventures.

Some facts from ElevenLabs Blog:

Since launch, ElevenLabs’ users have generated over 100 years of audio, while the firm grew from 5 to 40 employees. Today, ElevenLabs technology is being used by employees at 41% of Fortune 500 companies. 

ElevenLabs is also unveiling several new product developments:

• A new Dubbing Studio workflow that enables users to dub entire movies.

• A Voice Library marketplace where users can make money from AI versions of their voices. (I believe it is a big step for ElevenLab’s future.)

• An early-preview of the Mobile App reader that enables instant conversion of text and URLs into audio.

a16z said in its series A to ElevenLabs:

The human voice is one of our most primal, personal and expressive forms of communication. From a newborn’s first babbles to Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, voice carries not only our ideas, but also the most profound emotions and connections.

To date though, it’s been a time intensive and costly challenge for developers and creatives to incorporate high-quality voice into their work.

ElevenLabs’ pre-seed pitch deck is also worthwhile reading. Here is a brief journey of ElevenLabs from pre-seed to $1.1B in 18 months, from Conceptventures:

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Plus, Flexport raised another $260M from Shopify. And, interestingly, it is an uncapped convertible note.

Flexport founder and CEO Ryan Petersen:

Since I came back to the role of CEO, our team has made massive progress toward returning Flexport to profitability.

Further strengthening our cash position with this investment should send a strong message to customers that Flexport is building a long-term sustainable business that will continue to deliver best-in-class technology and services for global businesses.