The $22B startup co-founder working to make chatbots talk back
ElevenLabs’ Mati Staniszewski is betting that “voice AI” will soon become the norm.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni recently sought to trademark her voice, drawing attention to the increasing prevalence of AI deepfakes imitating people, from politicians to CEOs. This issue has also brought attention to the burgeoning industry of protecting prominent individuals' voice likenesses — a market expected to become integral to customer service, corporate sales calls, and interactions with devices ranging from cars to robots.
ElevenLabs, a London-based startup valued at $22 billion, is one of the leading players in this space. The company has trademarked voices for celebrities like Matthew McConaughey and Sir Michael Caine, and created a custom voice for Yahoo based on its co-founder, Jerry Yang. ElevenLabs boasts robust safeguards to detect and prevent unauthorized voice cloning or abuse.
Most of its revenue comes from corporate clients such as Deutsche Telekom and Revolut. Co-founder Mateusz "Mati" Staniszewski predicts that voice will become a crucial interface for many use cases, noting that it is more convenient for users and conveys more information than text. A practical application of ElevenLabs' voice AI is an AI interviewer for sales and development representative job candidates.
Users who interact through spoken conversation rather than typing have shown increased engagement and provide more information, resulting in over 3,000 leads, with more than 500 being qualified. CEO's should ensure their human employees maximize the benefits of AI agents by equipping them with necessary knowledge, providing coaching, and implementing proper safeguards.
Companies must find a way to integrate human oversight and collaboration with AI agents, creating a continuous feedback loop. Regarding potential future IPO, ElevenLabs is open to the possibility and aims to be ready within the next 18-24 months. The company's European origins and focus on a polyglot marketplace give it significant advantages, as the European talent pool is eager to build ambitious, global-scale ventures, and ElevenLabs has designed its technology to work effectively across multiple languages from the outset.
Written by urgent.news from Semafor's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
