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ElevenLabs Raises $500M At $11B Valuation, Considers IPO

Funding Milestone And Strategic Partnerships

London-based AI startup ElevenLabs announced a significant funding round, securing $500 million at an $11 billion valuation. The round was led by Sequoia Capital and saw strong participation from established investors, including Andreessen Horowitz and Iconiq Capital. New backers such as Lightspeed Venture Partners, Evantic Capital, and Bond also joined the round, underscoring the robust investor confidence in the company’s disruptive AI technology.

Innovative Growth And Enterprise Adoption

Founded in 2022, ElevenLabs initially gained recognition for its advanced text-to-speech models before expanding its portfolio to incorporate speech-to-text, sound effects, dubbing, music, and conversational AI. Its cutting-edge products empower enterprises to deploy voice and chat agents and offer brands and creators a platform to generate and localize audio content. Industry giants, including Nvidia, Meta, and Salesforce, leverage ElevenLabs’ voice infrastructure to innovate their offerings.

Scaling Globally And Preparing For An Ipo

ElevenLabs closed 2025 with an impressive $330 million in annual recurring revenue, driven by enterprise adoption from clients such as Deutsche Telekom and Revolut. Cofounder Mati Staniszewski remarked, “This funding helps us go beyond voice alone to transform how we interact with technology altogether,” hinting at the company’s broader plans. With offices spanning Europe, Brazil, Mexico, India, South Korea, Japan, and the United States, the firm is well-positioned for international expansion while gearing up for a potential IPO.

AI Startup Funding At Record Levels

The surge in investment in the AI sector is not isolated. In 2025, European AI startups raised a record €21.6 billion, with notable rounds including French model builder Mistral’s €1.7 billion raise and UK-based Nscale’s $1.1 billion funding. Additionally, landmark rounds for companies like German defence tech Helsing and UK avatar developer Synthesia further illustrate the market’s escalating confidence. In the United States, investors pumped $164.6 billion into AI companies. Major funding rounds for OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI drove much of this growth, alongside reports that Amazon could invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI.

As AI continues to redefine the technological landscape, ElevenLabs’ latest funding round not only marks a significant milestone for the company but also highlights the broader industry’s momentum towards transformative, next-generation AI applications.

Trump Honors Tech Leaders As Silicon Valley Ties To Washington Deepen

Musk, Brin, Huang And Dell Among Tech Figures Recognized By Trump Administration

The Trump administration has recognized several prominent technology and business leaders for their contributions to science and innovation, highlighting the increasingly close relationship between Silicon Valley and Washington.

“The Trump Administration is grateful for the contributions of these incredible leaders in science and technology,” White House assistant press secretary Liz Huston said in an emailed statement. “These recipients are helping ensure America keeps leading the world in innovation.”

Awards Follow Recent AI Summit

Coming just over a week after Trump hosted a White House lunch focused on artificial intelligence, the awards bring several of the same executives back into the spotlight. Other industry leaders also attended the gathering, which came as debate over the pace of AI development intensified. Trump later said he had signed a “morally binding” document with the technology leaders following the meeting.

Political ties add another dimension to the recognition. Each of the honorees has contributed financially, directly or indirectly, to Trump, Republican campaigns or related causes.

Tech Leaders Have Backed Trump

Elon Musk was Trump’s largest financial supporter during the 2024 election cycle, contributing more than $290 million. He later joined the administration as a special government employee and led an effort to reduce the federal workforce.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin attended Trump’s inauguration and donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Republican National Committee in 2025. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang contributed to a fund for Trump’s planned White House ballroom, while Nvidia donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration.

Michael Dell has also been a longtime Trump donor. Together with his wife, Susan, he pledged $6.25 billion to seed Trump Accounts, a programme designed to help families build savings for children in the US. AMD is also contributing to Trump-related funds.

Trump Holds Stakes In Major Tech Companies

Trump’s financial ties to the technology sector extend beyond political contributions. His most recent financial disclosure shows transactions involving shares of SpaceX, Tesla, Nvidia, Microsoft, AMD and Alphabet, Google’s parent company, as recently as July.

CNBC’s Eamon Javers contributed to this report.

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