ElevenLabs Crosses $500M ARR as BlackRock, NVIDIA Join $11B Series D Round
ElevenLabs announced on May 5, 2026 that it has surpassed $500 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) and added institutional investors including BlackRock, NVIDIA, and Deutsche Telekom to its $500M Series D round, which closed at an $11 billion valuation.
Revenue Milestones
The company's ARR tripled in under a year, reaching $500M with $100 million in net new ARR added in Q1 2026 alone — a rare growth rate at scale. The Series D was originally announced in February 2026, led by Sequoia Capital. New participants include BlackRock, Wellington, D.E. Shaw, Schroders (institutional), and NVIDIA, Salesforce Ventures, Deutsche Telekom, Santander, and KPN (strategic).
Enterprise Expansion
ElevenLabs signed enterprise contracts with Deutsche Telekom, Revolut, and Klarna. The company completed a $100 million secondary tender offering and acquired the team from Polish voice AI startup Papla. A retail investment opportunity via Robinhood Ventures is planned. Over 30 celebrity investors — including Jamie Foxx, Eva Longoria, and Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk — also participated.
Building Toward Human-Level Voice AI
CEO Mati Staniszewski framed the company's mission around closing the gap between AI and natural human voice: consumers require human-level AI voice models rather than robotic-sounding interactions. Proceeds will fund emotional conversational models, ElevenAgents expansion, dubbing capabilities, and global market growth. ElevenLabs is the first voice AI company to cross $500M ARR — a milestone signaling mainstream enterprise voice adoption. Source: TechCrunch.
Related Articles
DeepSeek has reportedly raised $7.4B at a valuation above $50B in its first external funding round. The unusual part is control: most investors are said to accept a five-year lock-up and no voting rights.
Gradial raised $65M at a $675M valuation to automate marketing workflows across enterprise tools. The company says T-Mobile cut campaign execution time by 80-90% with 99% accuracy.
World Labs, the startup from AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li, has raised $1 billion to scale its spatial intelligence technology. Autodesk leads with $200M, alongside Andreessen Horowitz, Nvidia, and AMD.