The synthetic voice technology company ElevenLabs Inc. has reached a monumental milestone, securing $250 million in a Series C funding round. Led by ICONIQ Growth, with participation by Andreessen Horowitz, ElevenLabs’ valuation has been placed between $3 billion and $3.3 billion. This massive investment follows its $80 million Series B in January 2024, to further solidify its position atop the industry specializing in AI-driven voice cloning and dubbing.
Advancing Synthetic Voice Technology:
ElevenLabs operates a cloud-based artificial intelligence platform renowned for its ability to generate synthetic voices for a variety of applications, including dubbing, audiobooks, and movie narrations. The platform boasts an extensive library of over 1,000 voices categorized by tones such as “confident,” “narrator,” and “expressive,” offering users versatile options to meet their needs.
One of the most remarkable characteristics of ElevenLabs’ platform is that it supports voice cloning. Through the website, the user is enabled to upload a short speech sample, which enables AI to reproduce the voice and deliver any message. With only one minute of audio, the platform can create a pretty basic voice clone, but 30 minutes of recording delivers a professional and completely indistinguishable replica.
ElevenLabs’ technology is not limited to one language. Its ability to translate cloned voices into more than two dozen languages, along with various regional accents, adds a groundbreaking edge. This capability makes the technology particularly useful for dubbing movies and shows in multiple languages, retaining the speaker’s tone, intonation, and style for an authentic experience. Users can also fine-tune voice clarity and style for additional customization.
Real-World Applications and Controversies:
The versatility of ElevenLabs’ synthetic voice platform has garnered significant attention. For instance, it was recently used to translate U.S. blogger Lex Friedman’s interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy into English and Russian, maintaining the original tone and emotional depth of Zelenskyy’s voice across all three languages.
It is such breakthrough technology that sparks debate. Recently, ElevenLabs faced criticism from the daughter of the late French actor Alain Dorval, who voiced Sylvester Stallone in French versions of films like Rambo and Rocky. Dorval died in February 2024. ElevenLabs recreated his voice for the new action movie Armor, which comes out in March 2025.
Aurore Bergé, daughter of Dorval and France’s Minister for Sexual Equality, claimed that ElevenLabs violated an agreement in which they would limit the voice cloning of her father to a “trial” only. She wrote on X that,
“I never agreed with such a broadcast. And my father would never have agreed with it as it was.
In response, ElevenLabs clarified that the project remains a work in progress, with Dorval’s family retaining ultimate control over whether the cloned voice will be used in the final version of the film.
A Growing Client Base and Industry Impact:
ElevenLabs offers its technology through a subscription-based application programming interface, which has attracted an impressive client roster. High-profile customers include the text-to-video startup Synthesia Ltd., media publishers such as The Washington Post, HarperCollins, and Bertelsmann SE & Co., as well as prominent video game developers.
The company’s focus on developing cutting-edge synthetic voice solutions has placed it at the forefront of a rapidly evolving industry. Others include Deepdub Ltd., OpenAI, and Google LLC, which are striving for dominance in the synthetic voice space. But ElevenLabs can provide multilingual voice cloning with regional accents and nuanced emotional replication.
The Road Ahead:
This $250 million funding will be used to enhance ElevenLabs’s capabilities and expand its reach into the market. Its technology is poised to transform the entertainment, publishing, and gaming industries with the promise of smooth and scalable solutions for voice dubbing and narration.
The investment will drive further research and development, allowing the company to further hone its technology and also respond better to ethical voices against voice cloning. ElevenLabs stands prepared to lead this industry into a future era of innovation and responsible usage.
As CEO Chris Busch stated,
“We aim not only to scale ElevenLabs but to inspire a movement that redefines what’s possible with AI. This funding is a step toward creating technology that empowers human creativity.”
With a growing portfolio of clients, groundbreaking capabilities, and a fresh influx of funding, ElevenLabs is shaping the future of AI-driven voice solutions, cementing its role as an industry leader.
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