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Artificial intelligence voice cloning startup ElevenLabs has raised $80M in a Series B funding round, reportedly valuing the company over $1B.
The Funding
ElevenLabs said the funding round was co-led by Andreessen Horowitz, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, and joined by Sequoia Capital, Smash Capital, SV Angel, BroadLight Capital and Credo Ventures to bolster its position as the leader in voice AI.
The new potential valuation marks an increase from the $100M valuation in its previous funding in 2023, as per data from PitchBook, the report added.
Product Offerings and Developments
ElevenLabs’ products allow users to convert text to speech online with its AI voice generator and create natural AI voices instantly in any language. The company also has an AI tool which allows users to create their AI voice clone from just a few minutes of audio.
ElevenLabs noted that its technology is being used by employees at 41% of Fortune 500 companies.
These include a new Dubbing Studio, a Voice Library marketplace, an early-preview of a the Mobile App reader that enables instant conversion of text and URLs into audio, and new models with improved speed and language coverage, the company added.
Focus on Responsibility
ElevenLabs noted that one of its core priority is safe and responsible development of AI, with a focus on enabling detection to ensure all AI-generated content is clearly identifiable. Last year, the company launched an AI Speech Classifier, a tool which can verify if an audio sample contains ElevenLabs generated content.
“This new funding enables us to take on even bigger challenges and focus on maintaining our competitive edge in research and product development,” said Piotr Dąbkowski, co-founder and chief technology officer of ElevenLabs.
Market Landscape
The start up is in the AI race with likes of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)-backed OpenAI, among others. Generative AI services have become the talk of the town since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022. Globally, companies have launched their own large language models, or LLMs, which can provide services such as content and image and voice generation, to name a few.
Meta Platforms’ (META) Emu Video, Emu Edit, AudioCraft, SeamlessM4T, and Llama 2, Alibaba’s (BABA) Tongyi Qianwen 2.0 and Tongyi Wanxiang, Baidu’s (BIDU) Ernie Bot, OpenAI’s text-to-image tool DALL·E 3, Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) (GOOGL) unit Google’s Bard, Samsung’s (OTCPK:SSNLF) Gauss, and Getty Images’ (GETY) model called Generative AI by Getty Images, are some of the LLMs, among the many, being developed.
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