ElevenLabs, a four-year-old voice AI company, is now reportedly valued at $22 billion by its backers. In a recent TechCrunch interview, co-founder and CEO Mati Staniszewski said the company is pacing at $600 million in annual recurring revenue, with over half coming from classic enterprise deals. Customers include Klarna, Deutsche Telekom, Cisco, Adobe, and multiple governments.
Staniszewski acknowledged that audio models will increasingly become commoditized, predicting that within three to five years the quality delta between models will narrow. However, he said significant differences remain today, and the company aims to be the first to pass a conversational AI Turing test by combining intelligence with emotional awareness.
The CEO also addressed the blurring line between model vendors and customers. ElevenLabs now competes with firms that trained on its platform, like Decagon. On disclosure, he said businesses should currently tell customers when they are speaking with an AI, but expects that in five years people will expect agents as the norm. He declined to give gross margin details, but said he is willing to accept lower margins if it helps expand market share.