ElevenLabs Inc., a startup that develops artificial intelligence models optimized to generate and transcribe speech, has raised $500 million in a late-stage funding.

Sequoia Capital led the Series D investment. It was joined by Andreessen Horowitz, Iconiq, Lightspeed and several others. ElevenLabs said today that the cash infusion values it at $11 billion, more than triple the $3.3 billion the company was worth last January.

The valuation jump is a reflection of the AI provider’s sales growth. ElevenLabs, which was founded in 2022, is generating more than $330 million in annualized revenue from a customer base that includes Meta Platforms Inc., Nvidia Corp. and other major tech firms. The graphics card maker is also an investor.

ElevenLabs’ newest AI model, Eleven v3, debuted last month. It can generate synthetic speech in more than 70 languages and simulate non-verbal reactions. Users interact with the model by entering a written script, optionally with pieces of data called audio tags that make it possible to customize the output in fine-grained ways.

The company also offers more than a half-dozen other models. There’s Eleven v2.5 Turbo, a faster alternative to Eleven v3 that can generate speech in near-real-time. It’s geared toward applications such as customer support assistants that require the ability to quickly respond to user prompts. Another model, Scribe v2, is a speech transcription algorithm that understands more than 90 languages.

The models are available through an application programming interface that developers can embed into their software. The algorithms are also accessible via two cloud services called ElevenAgents and ElevenCreative. They’re aimed at easing many of the chores involves in equipping an application with speech processing features.

ElevenAgents enables companies to create AI voice agents for tasks such as answering customer support requests. A library of more than 400 connectors can be used to integrate an agent with an organization’s backend systems. Additionally, there’s a drag-and-drop interface for customizing AI behavior. An electronics maker, for example, could specify when a support agent should route requests to a human help desk representative.

ElevenCreative, the company’s other cloud service, is optimized for content generation use cases. Marketers can use it to create background music for commercials. Integrations with third-party AI models enable customers to generate images and videos with text prompts.

“We plan to expand our Creative offering — helping creators combine our best-in-class audio with video and agents and enabling businesses to build agents that can talk, type and take action,” said co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Mati Staniszewski.

One way the company plans to enhance its value proposition is by developing new AI models. In parallel, London-based ElevenLabs will grow its presence across the more than dozen international markets where it operates. 

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