ElevenLabs hits $500M revenue run rate with backing from BlackRock, NVIDIA, and Hollywood stars

ElevenLabs is having a moment. The AI voice company just announced it has crossed $500 million in annual recurring revenue, marking one of the fastest growth trajectories in enterprise AI. The milestone comes alongside a third close of its Series D round, bringing in heavyweight investors from Wall Street institutions to Hollywood A-listers.

The numbers tell a compelling story. ElevenLabs ended 2025 with $350 million ARR and added another $150 million in just four months. That’s the kind of acceleration that signals a company hitting a sweet spot in the market – in this case, the exploding demand for AI voice agents that can handle customer service, sales calls, and other business communications.

The investor lineup reads like a who’s who of tech and entertainment. Financial giants BlackRock, Wellington, D.E. Shaw, and Schroders joined the round alongside enterprise customers turned investors like NVIDIA, Salesforce, and Deutsche Telekom. On the creative side, Jamie Foxx, Eva Longoria, and Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk are among more than 30 entertainment figures putting money behind the company.

This mix of institutional and celebrity backing reflects where ElevenLabs sits in the AI landscape. The company started by solving the technical challenge of making AI voices sound genuinely human rather than robotic. Now it’s becoming infrastructure for how businesses communicate at scale, while also opening new revenue streams for creators who want to extend their voices into new languages and experiences.

The enterprise momentum is particularly striking. Companies like Deutsche Telekom are using ElevenLabs across multiple business functions:

• AI agents for customer support calls
• Real-time translation during phone conversations
• Marketing video production with consistent brand voices
• Network-integrated AI assistance

“Voice is the highest-stakes channel for any customer interaction, and the bar for quality, latency and security is extremely high,” said Karine Peters from T.Capital, Deutsche Telekom’s investment arm. The telecom giant sees ElevenLabs as foundational to its broader AI strategy.

The Hollywood connection makes strategic sense too. As AI reshapes content creation and distribution, voice becomes a key asset for creators. Eva Longoria, one of the new investors, noted that “AI is transforming how stories are told and who they can reach.” For actors and musicians, the ability to authentically extend their voice into new languages or fan experiences represents a significant revenue opportunity.

ElevenLabs is betting that natural-sounding communication will be the make-or-break factor for AI adoption. As Rob Mazzoni from Wellington Management put it, “Every major enterprise will communicate with its customers and audiences through AI agents.” The companies that can make those interactions feel genuinely human will capture outsized value.

The growth trajectory suggests this thesis is playing out. With 530 employees across 50 countries and a $100 million tender offer for existing shareholders, ElevenLabs is scaling both its technology and its team. The company plans to expand its platform beyond voice into combined audio, image, and video generation for marketing teams, while building agents that can handle multiple communication channels.

For the broader AI industry, ElevenLabs’ success highlights how specialized AI companies can carve out valuable niches even as big tech companies build competing capabilities. By focusing specifically on voice quality and business applications, the company has built defensible technology that enterprises are willing to pay premium prices for. The $500 million ARR milestone puts it in rare company among AI startups and signals that the voice AI market is maturing rapidly.