ElevenLabs vs Grammarly: Founders, CEOs and History
ElevenLabs was founded in 2022 by Mati Staniszewski, Piotr Dabkowski and is led by Mati Staniszewski. Grammarly was founded in 2009 by Max Lytvyn, Alex Shevchenko, Dmytro Lider and is led by Shishir Mehrotra.
Company facts
ElevenLabs
- Founded
- 2022
- Headquarters
- London, United Kingdom & New York City, New York, United States
- Current CEO
- Mati Staniszewski
- Employees
- 800
Grammarly
- Founded
- 2009
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, California, United States
- Current CEO
- Shishir Mehrotra
- Employees
- 1,000
Founders
ElevenLabs
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.
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 Dabkow…
Grammarly
Max Lytvyn
Max Lytvyn co-founded Grammarly in 2009 with Alex Shevchenko and Dmytro Lider. The idea came from their MyDropBox work: helping people write well rather than catching plagiarism afterwards.
Alex Shevchenko
Alex Shevchenko co-founded Grammarly in 2009. He had previously co-founded MyDropbox, a plagiarism detection software that was widely used by universities and eventually acquired by Blackboard.
Dmytro Lider
Dmytro Lider co-founded Grammarly in 2009. He served as the primary technical architect during the company's early years in Kyiv, building the highly complex natural language processing (NLP) algorithms required to accurately detect grammatical errors beyond s…
CEOs and their tenures
ElevenLabs
- Mati Staniszewski2022–present
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
As Co-Founder and CEO, he rapidly scaled the company from a tiny startup into a $1.1 billion unicorn in less than two years, securing massive funding from Andreessen Horowitz.
Source - Piotr Dabkowski2022–present
Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer
As Co-Founder and CTO, he leveraged his previous experience as a Google machine learning engineer to build the absolute most realistic AI voice generator on the market.
Source
Grammarly
- Brad Hoover2011–2023
Former Chief Executive Officer
Serving as CEO from 2011 to 2023, he took a tiny, self-funded Ukrainian startup and transformed it into a massive $13 billion Silicon Valley unicorn before handing the reins to Roy-Chowdhury.
Source - Rahul Roy-Chowdhury2023–2025
Chief Executive Officer
Appointed CEO in 2023, the former Google executive is tasked with completely reinventing Grammarly from a mere 'spell checker' into an enterprise-wide communication assistant.
Source - Shishir Mehrotra2025–present
Chief Executive Officer
As a highly influential Board Member, he helped guide the company's aggressive, multi-billion dollar valuation rounds and its push into generative AI features.
Source
Timeline: ElevenLabs and Grammarly side by side
2009Grammarly
Grammarly Founded in Kyiv, Ukraine
Max Lytvyn, Alex Shevchenko, and Dmytro Lider founded Grammarly to help people communicate clearly in English.
2011Grammarly
Brad Hoover Becomes CEO
Brad Hoover, a former General Catalyst investor, became CEO; the company later based its headquarters in San Francisco while engineering stayed in Kyiv.
2015Grammarly
Launches Free Chrome Extension & Ignites Viral PLG Growth
Debuted the free Chrome browser extension, transforming Grammarly into an omnipresent consumer phenomenon.
2017Grammarly
$110M First Outside Funding Round Led by General Catalyst
After eight years of profitable bootstrapping, raised $110 million led by Hemant Taneja at General Catalyst.
2018Grammarly
Grammarly Business Expands Enterprise Offering
Grew its paid offering for corporate teams with admin, billing and style controls.
2019Grammarly
$90M Round at $1.0B+ Unicorn Valuation Led by General Catalyst
Achieved official unicorn status, debuting tone detection to evaluate emotional resonance in writing.
2021Grammarly
$200M Financing at $13.0B Valuation Led by Baillie Gifford
Raised $200 million at a $13 billion valuation in a round led by Baillie Gifford and BlackRock funds.
2022ElevenLabs
ElevenLabs founded
Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dabkowski start the company to build expressive AI voice and dubbing.
2023ElevenLabs
Public beta and $19M Series A
Beta launches in January; Series A co-led by Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross and Andreessen Horowitz follows in June.
2023Grammarly
Rahul Roy-Chowdhury Appointed CEO & Launches Grammarly AI
Former Google executive Rahul Roy-Chowdhury became CEO, launching generative AI and contextual email rewrites.
2024ElevenLabs
$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.
2024Grammarly
Agreement to Acquire Coda
Grammarly agreed to acquire Coda in December 2024; Coda co-founder Shishir Mehrotra became Grammarly's CEO.
2025ElevenLabs
$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.
2025Grammarly
$1B Financing, Superhuman Mail Deal and Rebrand
Closed $1 billion from General Catalyst in May, completed the Superhuman Mail acquisition in July and renamed the company Superhuman on October 29.
2026ElevenLabs
$500M Series D at $11B
Sequoia Capital leads the February 2026 round; ARR passes $500 million in April.
2026ElevenLabs
$300M employee tender at $22B
September 30, 2026 tender co-led by Wellington and T. Rowe Price doubles the Series D valuation.
2026Grammarly
Superhuman Docs Launch and GPTZero Deal
Rebuilt Coda as Superhuman Docs and agreed on June 23 to acquire GPTZero.
Acquisitions
Grammarly
- GPTZero2026Undisclosed
- Superhuman (Superhuman Mail)2025Undisclosed
- Coda2024Undisclosed
Questions about ElevenLabs vs Grammarly
Who is the CEO of ElevenLabs and Grammarly Inc.?
ElevenLabs is led by Mati Staniszewski and Grammarly Inc. is led by Shishir Mehrotra. Both serve as the top executive responsible for the company's strategy, operations, and financial performance.
When was ElevenLabs founded vs Grammarly Inc.?
Grammarly Inc. was founded in 2009 — 13 years before ElevenLabs, which was founded in 2022. Grammarly Inc.'s longer operating history gives it a deeper track record but also potentially more institutional inertia compared to the younger ElevenLabs.
How many employees does ElevenLabs have compared to Grammarly Inc.?
ElevenLabs employs approximately 800 people, while Grammarly Inc. employs approximately 1,000. Grammarly Inc. has the larger workforce at 1,000 employees, compared to ElevenLabs's 800. A higher headcount does not necessarily imply greater efficiency — it often reflects differences in business model (e.g., manufacturing vs. software).
Where are ElevenLabs and Grammarly Inc. headquartered?
Both ElevenLabs and Grammarly Inc. are headquartered in United States. Their local rules and tax obligations may still differ.
Who founded ElevenLabs and Grammarly Inc.?
ElevenLabs was founded by Mati Staniszewski, Piotr Dabkowski. Grammarly Inc. was founded by Max Lytvyn, Alex Shevchenko, Dmytro Lider.
Which company has a longer operating history — ElevenLabs or Grammarly Inc.?
Grammarly Inc. has been operating for approximately 17 years, making it the more established of the two companies. ElevenLabs has been in operation for around 4 years. A longer operating history often signals greater institutional resilience and brand recognition, though it can also mean slower adaptation to new market conditions.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the ElevenLabs vs Grammarly overview