Tags: ElevenLabs

Voice‑AI startup ElevenLabs announced a $500 million Series D round that added heavyweight investors such as BlackRock, Wellington, D.E. Shaw, Nvidia and celebrity backers Jamie Foxx and Eva Longoria. The funding lifts the company’s valuation to roughly $11 billion and brings annual recurring revenue past the $500 million mark. In the first quarter of 2026, ElevenLabs added $100 million of new ARR, signing enterprise deals with Deutsche Telekom, Revolut and Klarna. The firm also plans to open retail‑investor participation through Robinhood Ventures. Weiterlesen

ElevenLabs has quietly introduced ElevenMusic, a free iOS app that lets users create and discover AI‑generated songs using natural‑language prompts. The app offers daily limits, customizable song length and style, and a suite of listening features such as live stations and mood‑based mixes. A Pro tier priced at $9.99 per month expands limits to 500 tracks monthly and provides over 500 GB of storage. The launch reflects ElevenLabs' broader push beyond voice models into creative AI tools, positioning the company to compete with other AI music platforms. Weiterlesen

ElevenLabs co‑founder and CEO Mati Staniszewski told attendees at the Web Summit that voice is poised to become the primary way people interact with artificial‑intelligence systems. He highlighted recent advances that let voice models convey emotion and work alongside large language models, and outlined the company’s push toward hybrid cloud‑and‑device processing for wearables and other hardware. Staniszewski also noted partnerships with Meta and warned that deeper voice integration raises privacy and surveillance concerns. Weiterlesen

Voice‑AI startup ElevenLabs announced a $500 million financing led by Sequoia Capital, pushing its valuation to $11 billion. Existing backers a16z, Iconiq and several others increased their stakes, while new investors such as Lightspeed Venture Partners, EvanticCapital and Bond joined the round. The capital will fund research, product development and international expansion into markets like India, Japan, Singapore, Brazil and Mexico. Co‑founder Mati Staniszewski highlighted plans to broaden the company’s offerings beyond voice, including video content and multi‑modal AI agents. The company closed the prior year with $330 million in annual recurring revenue. Weiterlesen

Actor Chris Pratt discusses his positive outlook on artificial intelligence in filmmaking. While acknowledging that AI could displace some industry jobs, he emphasizes its potential to enable more storytellers, increase the number of movies produced, and create new collaborative departments. Pratt’s perspective contrasts with outspoken critics such as Guillermo Del Toro and certain actors’ unions. He also notes that other public figures have begun partnering with AI audio companies, illustrating a broader industry shift toward embracing the technology. Weiterlesen

ElevenLabs has launched an album of AI-generated songs to demonstrate how artists can use its Eleven Music generator while keeping full authorship and commercial rights. The project features thirteen artists who blended their signature sounds with the AI tool and retain 100 percent of streaming revenue. The album is available on Spotify and the ElevenLabs website. The move comes as major record labels begin to partner with AI platforms, while some artists remain wary of voice and style cloning without compensation. Weiterlesen

ElevenLabs has introduced an online marketplace that lets companies license AI‑generated replicas of famous voices for advertising and other content. The platform connects brands with the owners of iconic vocal talent, offering a consent‑based, performer‑first licensing model. Voices are created using cloning technology or synthetic reconstruction from archival recordings, and the initial catalog features 28 verified figures ranging from historical icons like Mark Twain to living celebrities such as Michael Caine. Weiterlesen

Adobe unveiled a suite of AI‑driven audio tools within its Firefly platform, letting creators generate background music, speech, and sound effects directly from text prompts. The new features include a generate‑speech engine with dozens of voices in multiple languages, a generate‑soundtrack tool that produces royalty‑free music matched to video content, and expanded partnerships with ElevenLabs and Topaz Labs. Adobe also introduced licensing that lets users employ AI‑created music indefinitely. The updates aim to give creators more control and flexibility while simplifying the workflow for audio‑rich projects. Weiterlesen

OpenAI is reportedly developing a tool that can generate music from text and audio prompts. The company has partnered with students from The Juilliard School to annotate music scores, creating training data for the AI system. Potential uses include generating guitar accompaniment for vocal tracks or adding background music to videos. The effort reflects a broader surge in AI‑generated music, with startups like Suno and ElevenLabs launching similar products and AI‑created tracks already appearing on streaming platforms. Industry observers note the rise of AI music spam and reference past controversies such as the Velvet Sundown incident. Weiterlesen

London‑based AI creative studio Wonder Studios announced a $12 million seed round led by Atomico, with participation from LocalGlobe, Blackbird and early backers including executives from ElevenLabs, Google DeepMind and OpenAI. The capital will fund a doubling of the engineering team and propel the company’s push into intellectual‑property ownership, original productions and commercial AI‑driven projects. Recent milestones include an AI‑generated music video for Lewis Capaldi’s “Something in the Heavens,” the anthology series “Beyond the Loop,” and an upcoming documentary partnership with Campfire Studios, the producer behind several Netflix documentaries. Weiterlesen

Universal Music and Warner Music are on the brink of licensing agreements that could reshape how the music industry interacts with artificial intelligence. Talks involve major tech firms such as Google and Spotify, as well as AI startups like Klay Vision, ElevenLabs, and Stability AI. The negotiations focus on how labels will license songs for AI training and generation, with compensation models resembling streaming micropayments. Successful deals would require AI companies to develop tools that track music usage in real time. Weiterlesen

Three engineers who helped build Google’s AI note‑taking tool NotebookLM have founded a new startup, Huxe, that creates audio‑first briefings and podcasts on demand. The app pulls information from a user’s email, calendar and web sources to generate a personalized “station” of AI‑hosted audio content, allowing listeners to ask for clarifications or deeper dives. Huxe launched on an invite‑only basis before becoming publicly available on iOS and Android. The company raised $4.6 million from investors including Conviction, Genius Ventures, Figma CEO Dylan Field and Google Research chief scientist Jeff Dean. Weiterlesen