This article is a part of Poland Unpacked. Weekly intelligence for decision-makers
The ElevenLabs startup announced the closing of its Series D funding round, raising USD 500 million (around PLN 1.8 billion, approximately EUR 460 million). The transaction values the company at USD 11 billion, or close to PLN 39.4 billion (about EUR 9.6 billion). That places it firmly among the leading technology companies with Polish origins.
“This reflects the trust of our customers and partners,” said co-founder Mateusz Staniszewski.
ElevenLabs and a major Polish success story
Since its founding, ElevenLabs has raised a total of USD 781 million. The previous round, completed in early 2025, brought in USD 180 million.
The latest round was led by Sequoia, with Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) also committing a significantly larger investment. According to the company, a16z increased its stake in the startup fourfold, while Iconiq tripled its holding.
“We are also welcoming many outstanding strategic partners on this journey, whom we will say more about in February,” said Mateusz Staniszewski.
New investors joining the cap table include Lightspeed, Evantic Capital, and BOND. Existing shareholders – BroadLight, NFDG, Valor Capital, AMP Coalition, and Smash Capital – are continuing their support.
“We started by building a human voice – and we achieved that. Today, we are developing foundation models that cover the entire audio stack: from text-to-speech, through transcription, to dubbing and music,” said Piotr Dąbkowski, co-founder of ElevenLabs.
In addition, Andrew Reed of Sequoia will join ElevenLabs’ investor board.
Investor's perspective
ElevenLabs as a breakthrough solution
A valuation on a par with giants
A valuation of around PLN 40 billion (EUR 8.9 billion) places ElevenLabs among the leading private companies in Poland. For comparison, only 11 companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange have a higher market capitalization than ElevenLabs, valued at PLN 39.4 billion (EUR 8.7 billion). The twelfth company in the WIG20 index, Dino, is valued at PLN 38.5 billion (EUR 8.5 billion); Allegro ranks sixteenth with PLN 30.6 billion (EUR 6.8 billion); and CD Projekt seventeenth with PLN 25.1 billion (EUR 5.5 billion).
If one looks only at companies not linked to the state, ElevenLabs would rank at the very top of the table. Santander Bank Polska leads with a market capitalization of around PLN 62 billion (EUR 13.9 billion), followed by ING at roughly PLN 53.6 billion (EUR 12 billion), and mBank at about PLN 45.7 billion (EUR 10.2 billion). On this basis, ElevenLabs would take fourth place.
By comparison, InPost is currently valued at around PLN 28 billion (EUR 6.3 billion).
What a bigger ElevenLabs has in store
The company closed 2025 with over USD 330 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR), driven by rapid growth among corporate clients such as Deutsche Telekom, Square, the Ukrainian government, and Revolut. ElevenLabs’ technology is applied across areas including customer service, conversational sales, internal training, and citizen engagement.
With the new capital, the company plans to further develop its conversational platform, ElevenAgents. This platform enables the creation of interactive voice and text agents used in customer service, marketing, and internal processes. In the coming days, it will feature a new model—faster and better at understanding emotional cues in speech.
In parallel, ElevenLabs will continue to advance ElevenCreative, a tool for creators and brands to generate, edit, and localize audio in over 70 languages. Clients include Duolingo, NVIDIA, and TIME.
The third pillar is ElevenAPI, which provides low-latency, production-grade voice infrastructure and is used by major players such as Meta, Epic Games, Salesforce, MasterClass, and Harvey.
“When we founded ElevenLabs, we couldn’t have imagined the scale and impact we have today,” added co-founder Mati Staniszewski.
Eleven v3 launches
ElevenLabs has also unveiled a new version of its conversational model – Eleven v3 – which offers improved dialogue management (turn-taking), faster responses, and greater emotional expressiveness. The company is also investing in research on emotional conversational models, dubbing, and so-called audio general intelligence.
The startup is continuing its international expansion, building sales teams in key cities including London, New York, San Francisco, Warsaw, Dublin, Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore, Bengaluru, Sydney, São Paulo, Berlin, Paris, and Mexico City. The goal is to increase adoption of ElevenAgents and ElevenCreative among corporate clients worldwide.
How ElevenLabs attracts investors
One of ElevenLabs’ minority investors is Endeavor Catalyst, the investment fund of the U.S.-based foundation behind the global Endeavor community of technology entrepreneurs. The fund invests relatively small amounts in companies led by Endeavor entrepreneurs, channeling its returns into community development and support for its members. The founders of ElevenLabs are part of this network. However, Endeavor Catalyst did not participate financially in the latest round.
“When I was developing the Endeavor network in Poland, I dreamed that in ten years a homegrown company would emerge as the first decacorn – valued at over $10 billion. This happened much faster. ElevenLabs has been on the market for about three years and is growing at a phenomenal pace,” said Bartosz Lipnicki, Managing Director of Endeavor Poland.
He believes the founders have an exceptional market sense.
“Right now we have a global AI boom, and ElevenLabs’ solutions fit perfectly into this trend. They fill a gap in a previously underdeveloped space – speech synthesis, dubbing, automation of voice-over work, and so on,” Mr. Lipnicki added.
He also notes that the company’s operating model has contributed to its success. From the start, ElevenLabs was built as a global business, which makes it a magnet for top-tier international investors and venture capital funds looking for projects capable of rapid scaling.
“The success of the growing ElevenLabs also attracts outstanding managerial talent. The team’s experience, know-how, and competencies strengthen the company and enable it to expand even further,” emphasized Mr. Lipnicki.
Who has funded the decacorn in recent years
ElevenLabs has been developing with investor support from the very beginning, from day one on a global scale. Its previous funding round, completed last year, raised PLN 720 million (EUR 160 million). According to the report “Transactions on the Polish VC Market 2025” by PFR Ventures and Inovo.vc – based on their own estimates and data from Dealroom, a global investment analytics platform – the company’s valuation at that time rose to PLN 24.8 billion (EUR 5.5 billion).
Over the past three years, the company’s global growth has been supported by leading funds including Andreessen Horowitz, ICONIQ, New Enterprise Associates, World Innovation Lab, Valor Capital Group, Endeavor Catalyst Fund, Lunate, Sequoia Capital, Smash Capital, SV Angel, BroadLight Capital, and Credo Ventures.
At the very start of its journey, ElevenLabs also received backing from Polish business angels. Official lists include names such as Bartek Pucek, Bartek Sobczak, Bartosz Majewski, Maciej Gnutek, Marta Pyrzyk, Peter Czaban, Piotr Karwatka, Tomasz Karwatka, and Tytus Cytowski. According to the PFR Ventures and Inovo.vc report:
“The lead in the first round was the Credo fund, where Maciej Gnutek is a partner. Some investors allocated their capital via a syndicate run by Bartek Pucek.”
Key Takeaways
- A global operating model attracts investors and talent. ElevenLabs’ success rests on a well-considered strategy: from the outset, the company was built as a global entity addressing real market needs in AI. This model, supported by top venture capital funds such as Sequoia, a16z, and ICONIQ, has enabled rapid scaling and attracted key managerial talent. The company’s growth is further fueled by the AI boom in audio and voice solutions, which ElevenLabs is leveraging effectively, filling niches in areas such as dubbing and automation of voice-over work.
- ElevenLabs achieves the status of a technology giant with Polish roots. With the closing of its Series D funding round of USD 500 million (PLN 1.8 billion), ElevenLabs reached a record valuation of USD 11 billion (PLN 40 billion), making it one of the highest-valued private companies in Poland. The startup, developing voice and conversational technologies, has become a leader in the global AI audio market, attracting the attention of key investors and partners worldwide. In just three years, it has secured a place among the top technology companies not only in Poland but on the international stage.
- Impressive growth dynamics and international expansion. The company closed 2025 with over USD 330 million in annual recurring revenue (PLN 1.2 billion), driven primarily by a growing roster of corporate clients, including Meta, Epic Games, Revolut, TIME, and the Ukrainian government. The new capital will support the development of flagship projects: ElevenAgents, ElevenCreative, and ElevenAPI. ElevenLabs is also steadily expanding its sales infrastructure, building teams in key global metropolises across five continents.