TL;DR:
- ElevenLabs, an AI-powered platform for synthetic voices, secures $19 million in Series A funding.
- The funding round was co-led by Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, and Andreessen Horowitz.
- ElevenLabs plans to invest the funds in its research hub for voice AI and develop new products for specific market verticals.
- The platform allows text-to-speech conversion using synthetic, cloned, or artificial voices with diverse characteristics.
- Alongside the funding, ElevenLabs introduces Projects, a workflow tool for editing and creating long-form spoken content.
- The company also launches an AI Speech Classifier tool to detect AI-generated content from its platform.
- ElevenLabs acknowledges concerns regarding misuse and commits to implementing safeguards and promoting transparency.
- The platform aims to extend its AI models to voice dubbing and enable emotion and intonation transfer across languages.
- With $21 million in total funding, ElevenLabs competes with industry giants and other startups in the generative voice space.
Main AI News:
ElevenLabs, the AI-powered platform known for its creation of synthetic voices, has successfully secured a new funding round. The startup recently announced the completion of a Series A round, raising an impressive $19 million. The funding was co-led by entrepreneurs Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, together with Andreessen Horowitz. Notable participants in the round included heavyweights Creator Ventures, SV Angel, Mike Krieger (co-founder of Instagram), Brendan Iribe (co-founder of Oculus), Mustafa Suleyman (co-founder of Deepmind and Inflection AI), and Tim O’Reilly (founder of O’Reilly Media).
According to a reliable source, the investment has valued ElevenLabs at $99 million post-money, a significant figure given that the startup was established just over a year ago. The fresh funds will be utilized to further develop ElevenLab’s cutting-edge research hub for voice AI and introduce a range of additional products tailored to specific market verticals, including publishing, gaming, entertainment, and conversational applications. Mati Staniszewski, the co-founder and CEO, shared with TechCrunch via email that these investments will play a crucial role in the company’s expansion.
Founded by Staniszewski, a former Palantir employee, and his childhood friend Piotr Dabkowski, a former Google employee, ElevenLabs was inspired by the underwhelming dubbing of American movies in their native Poland. Driven by their desire to improve this aspect, the duo embarked on designing a platform that leverages AI to create superior voice quality.
ElevenLabs offers the ability to convert text into speech using synthetic voices, cloned voices, or entirely unique “artificial” voices that closely resemble different genders, ages, and ethnicities. The company’s AI text-to-speech models are language-agnostic, enabling corporate customers to fine-tune them and construct their own proprietary speech models on top.
To coincide with the Series A funding round, ElevenLabs, currently employing 15 individuals, is introducing Projects—a comprehensive workflow solution for editing and creating long-form spoken content. With Projects, users can conveniently generate dialogue segments and even produce audiobooks without having to leave the platform.
Staniszewski highlighted that the technology can be utilized in numerous areas by business-to-business partners. These include scalable and multilingual audiobook creation, voicing characters in video games, converting digital articles into audio format, facilitating visually impaired individuals in accessing online written content, and empowering AI-powered radio services.
Since its beta launch in late January, ElevenLabs has gained significant momentum due to the exceptional quality of its generated voices, rapid generation times, and a generous free tier. However, the platform has also faced challenges, with bad actors exploiting its capabilities to disseminate hateful messages mimicking celebrities and even cloning voices for malicious purposes. In response, ElevenLabs is implementing new safeguards, such as restricting voice cloning to paid accounts, enforcing strict penalties for repeat violations of its terms of service, and introducing an AI detection tool.
The newly launched detection tool, known as AI Speech Classifier, will be available as an API to select partners. It aims to identify whether an uploaded audio sample contains AI-generated content from ElevenLabs. Mati Staniszewski emphasized the importance of ensuring the safe adoption of generative AI platforms and acknowledged the need for public awareness regarding the prevalence of generative media. ElevenLabs is committed to building tools that aid in the detection of AI-generated content, promoting transparency within the industry.
While the voluntary detection tool may not entirely deter malicious use, another concern arises—an existential threat to voice actors. Voice actors are increasingly being asked to relinquish rights to their voices, enabling clients to use AI to generate synthetic versions that could potentially replace them without additional compensation. Internal emails obtained by The New York Times reveal that Activision Blizzard, one of the world’s largest game publishers, is actively exploring AI-assisted “voice cloning” tools.
ElevenLabs seems to perceive this as a natural progression, citing partnerships with publishers like Storytel and media platforms such as TheSoul Publishing and MNTN for the creation of audiobooks, video games, and radio content. (Storytel and TheSoul Publishing are strategic investors.) The company claims to have amassed over a million registered users in creative, entertainment, and publishing fields, resulting in ten years’ worth of audio content.
The future plans of ElevenLabs include expanding its AI models into voice dubbing, following the footsteps of startups like Papercup and Deepdub. The company aims to establish a foundation for transferring emotions and intonations across different languages. The ultimate goal is to enable the dubbing of any video into any language while preserving the original speaker’s voice. ElevenLabs is already conducting tests with industry partners to facilitate AI dubbing on a large scale.
Armed with $21 million in funding (including $2 million from a pre-seed round in January), ElevenLabs is fiercely focused on outshining its competitors in the burgeoning generative voice space. Key rivals include established players like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, as well as startups such as Murf, Tavus, Resemble AI, Respeecher, PlayHT, and Lovo. With its strong financial backing, ElevenLabs is prepared to forge ahead, consequences notwithstanding, to solidify its position in this rapidly evolving industry.
Conclusion:
ElevenLabs’ successful funding round and the launch of its AI detection tool demonstrate the growing demand for synthetic voice technology. The investment will further fuel the company’s research and development efforts, enabling the creation of new products tailored to specific market verticals. By introducing safeguards and detection tools, ElevenLabs aims to address concerns surrounding misuse and promote the responsible adoption of generative AI platforms. With its ambitious plans for voice dubbing and internationalization, ElevenLabs is poised to disrupt the voice industry and compete against established players and emerging startups in the market.
