ElevenLabs
Company History
ElevenLabs History: Founding, Growth & Key Milestones
Founded 2022 in London, United Kingdom
When was ElevenLabs founded?
ElevenLabs was founded in 2022 in London, United Kingdom by Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dabkowski, making it 4 years old.
- Founded
- 2022
- Founding place
- London, United Kingdom
- Founders
- Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dabkowski
- Headquarters today
- London, United Kingdom & New York City, New York, United States
- Milestones documented
- 6 (2022–2026)
- Current CEO
- Mati Staniszewski
- Acquisitions
- 1
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 2022 | ElevenLabs founded |
| 2023 | Public beta and $19M Series A |
| 2024 | $80M Series B at $1.1B valuation |
| 2025 | $180M Series C at $3.3B; ARR passes $330M |
| 2026 | $500M Series D at $11B |
| 2026 | $300M employee tender at $22B |
- Where was ElevenLabs founded?
- ElevenLabs was founded in London, United Kingdom in 2022.
- Who founded ElevenLabs?
- ElevenLabs was founded by Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dabkowski.
- When did ElevenLabs start?
- ElevenLabs was founded in 2022.
- How old is ElevenLabs?
- ElevenLabs is 4 years old as of 2026.
Founding Story
Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dabkowski grew up together in Poland, where foreign films are often 'dubbed' by a single monotone lektor voice reading every character's lines. After careers at Palantir (Staniszewski) and Google (Dabkowski), they founded ElevenLabs in 2022 to make any content available in any language and voice, and opened a public beta in January 2023.
Founders
Mati Staniszewski
Mati Staniszewski is the Polish-born co-founder and CEO of ElevenLabs. He grew up near Warsaw, studied mathematics at Imperial College London and worked at Palantir before starting ElevenLabs with school friend Piotr Dabkowski in 2022. As CEO he has led the company through its Series B (2024), Series C (2025), $11 billion Series D (February 2026) and $22 billion employee tender (September 2026). Mateusz "Mati" Staniszewski was born in 1995.
Piotr Dabkowski
Piotr Dabkowski is co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of ElevenLabs. He studied at the University of Cambridge, worked as a machine learning engineer at Google and leads the research behind ElevenLabs' speech, transcription and music models. Piotr Dabkowski was born in 1994. Education: University of Oxford. Dabkowski was born in December 1994 and is a software engineer.
Key Milestones
ElevenLabs founded
Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dabkowski start the company to build expressive AI voice and dubbing.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgPublic beta and $19M Series A
Beta launches in January; Series A co-led by Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross and Andreessen Horowitz follows in June.
Source: en.wikipedia.org$80M Series B at $1.1B valuation
January 2024 round makes ElevenLabs a unicorn; the company later launches its Conversational AI agent platform and Reader app.
Source: en.wikipedia.org$180M Series C at $3.3B; ARR passes $330M
January 2025 round co-led by a16z and ICONIQ; Eleven v3 and Eleven Music launch during the year.
Source: techcrunch.com$500M Series D at $11B
Sequoia Capital leads the February 2026 round; ARR passes $500 million in April.
Source: techcrunch.com$300M employee tender at $22B
September 30, 2026 tender co-led by Wellington and T. Rowe Price doubles the Series D valuation.
Source: techcrunch.comMajor Acquisitions
Omnivore
2024iOS reader application team and technology.
Keep researching ElevenLabs
ElevenLabs Company History FAQ
What is the chronological history of ElevenLabs from 2022 to the present day?
Founded in 2022, ElevenLabs opened its public beta in January 2023, raised a $19M Series A in 2023, an $80M Series B at $1.1B in January 2024, a $180M Series C at $3.3B in January 2025, a $500M Series D at $11B in February 2026, and completed a $300M employee tender at $22B in September 2026.
When did ElevenLabs launch its viral public beta to the world?
In January 2023, ElevenLabs launched its public beta featuring instant text-to-speech and voice cloning. Its groundbreaking emotional realism immediately captivated millions of YouTubers, game developers, podcasters, and AI researchers.
When was the ElevenLabs Voice Library marketplace officially launched?
ElevenLabs launched the Voice Library in mid-2023, introducing a creator payout system where voice actors could share digital clones of their voices and earn direct financial royalties from community usage.
When did ElevenLabs achieve unicorn status with an $80 million Series B?
In January 2024 ElevenLabs raised an $80 million Series B co-led by Andreessen Horowitz, Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, with Sequoia participating, at a $1.1 billion valuation.
When was ElevenLabs AI Video Dubbing introduced?
In late 2023, ElevenLabs launched its end-to-end AI Dubbing tool, automatically translating dialogue in video files across 29+ languages while preserving original speaker voice characteristics, background audio, and acoustic pacing.
When was the ElevenLabs Reader mobile application released?
In June 2024, ElevenLabs released the ElevenLabs Reader app for iOS and Android, allowing millions of users to listen to any digital article, PDF, or book on their mobile devices in studio-quality AI voices.
How has ElevenLabs evolved into a full-stack generative audio platform?
Between 2023 and 2024, ElevenLabs expanded from pure text-to-speech into a complete generative audio platform, adding AI Sound Effects, Voice Isolator, Speech-to-Speech voice changers, and low-latency Conversational AI Agents.
What is ElevenLabs' long-term vision for the future of synthetic audio and communication?
ElevenLabs' long-term vision is to transform human communication and storytelling, making all spoken knowledge and entertainment instantly accessible, emotionally resonant, and universally multilingual in any voice, anywhere on earth.
How did ElevenLabs start?
ElevenLabs was founded in 2022 by Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dąbkowski. Growing up in Poland, they were incredibly frustrated by the terrible, emotionless voice dubbing in American Hollywood movies. They built the company specifically to create AI voices that could perfectly capture human emotion and breathing patterns.
Related Strategic History
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