Blog

ElevenLabs: AI’s Natural Interface

by Ann Bordetsky, Alex Sharata, Mason Murray and James KaplanJan 30, 2025

Video thumbnnail

Introducing ElevenLabs Conversational AI

Advanced technology is often indistinguishable from magic. 

Imagine having a conversation with your favorite book. Creating content that can instantly reach audiences around the world in their native languages. Laughing along with your favorite AI assistant. Talking to an empathetic customer support agent. Even reclaiming your own voice and ability to speak. 

That is the magic of ElevenLabs. 

An early pioneer in AI audio research, ElevenLabs has made remarkable progress in the past two years to become the global category leader in AI-powered voice and audio products, serving enterprises, developers, creators and consumers. As we’ve gotten to know ElevenLabs founders, Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dabkowski, we’ve been blown away by the team’s product velocity, research depth, and collaboration with the world’s most important creator, entertainment, publishing, telecom, gaming and AI companies. 

ElevenLabs founders, Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dabkowski

The team's relentless execution has yielded extraordinary results:

  • ElevenLabs technology is used by 60% of the Fortune 500 [1] and also by some of the fastest growing generative AI companies, like Synthesia and Perplexity 

  • ElevenLabs SOTA models have localized more than 1 million hours of audio [1] 

  • ElevenLabs models generate ultra-realistic, human-like speech in 32 languages [1]

  • ElevenLabs Conversational AI builder has been used to create 250k voice agents [1]

Voice is our most natural interface. Yet it is deceptively complex to generate with AI. 

Think about individual human voices—they are rich with expression and cultural context, including variations of tone, speed, personality, not to mention accents, inflections, and languages. Creating human-likeness in dubbing, narration or customer support requires more than just accurate production of syllables—it demands deep semantic understanding of text to capture the subtleties of intonation, emotion, and cadence. Traversing the uncanny valley of synthetic voices demands perfection of the smallest details, all while managing latency, consistency and inference cost. 

ElevenLabs is relentlessly pushing the research and application frontier in AI audio to make voice AI accessible at scale. Here are a few examples that get us excited about what’s possible across different industries and use cases:  

What happens next could be even more disruptive than the past two years as companies build voice agents for a variety of business applications and natural voice becomes a core modality for how we communicate with machines and applications. 

ElevenLabs recently introduced its Conversational AI platform to help businesses and developers build the next generation of voice experiences.

We believe there’s exciting growth ahead in the AI voice and audio market: 

  • Personal assistants that sound and respond naturally

  • Dynamic advertising that speaks directly to consumers

  • Autonomous real-time support agents 

  • Personalized media that adapts to individual preferences

  • Creative tools that bring video to life with AI voices, sound effects and music

AI companions that offer empathetic support (read more on personal AI here)

ElevenLabs is building the foundational technology that will enable a vast ecosystem of AI-native applications with voice as a key interface. 

There’s no more powerful motivator than a personal connection to the cause. Mati and Piotr originally started ElevenLabs out of a deep frustration with their own experience growing up—having to watch American movies in Poland where all the characters were dubbed in a single voice. In the three years since its founding, ElevenLabs has not only solved that problem but demonstrated the hallmarks of a category-defining company with strong growth, operating efficiency, cutting edge research and customer love. 

Mati Staniszewski, ElevenLabs, and Ann Bordetsky, NEA, at an NEA and Factorial Funds AI Founder Event, Spring 2024.

As founders, Mati and Piotr stand out not only for their ambitious vision but equally for their humility, thoughtfulness and attention to AI safety. We are thrilled to participate in the company’s Series C financing, and to partner with the ElevenLabs team.

We welcome Mati, Piotr, and the entire team to our growing portfolio of world-class AI companies including Databricks, Perplexity, Together AI, Twelve Labs, Genmo, Synthesia, Sana, World Labs, Sakana, Backflip, and many more.

ElevenLabs is hiring in AI Research, Engineering, GTM, Operations and more across London, NYC, San Francisco and remote. Check out their Careers Page.

About the Authors

Ann Bordetsky

Ann is a Partner at NEA, where she focuses on early-stage investing in consumer technology and AI application software and marketplaces. Prior to NEA, Ann was Chief Operating Officer of Rival (acquired by Live Nation) and held business leadership roles at Uber and Twitter during their growth phase. As an operator, she has seen Silicon Valley startups through each phase of the company-building lifecycle, from first launch to IPO. Ann holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BS from UC Berkeley.
Ann is a Partner at NEA, where she focuses on early-stage investing in consumer technology and AI application software and marketplaces. Prior to NEA, Ann was Chief Operating Officer of Rival (acquired by Live Nation) and held business leadership roles at Uber and Twitter during their growth phase. As an operator, she has seen Silicon Valley startups through each phase of the company-building lifecycle, from first launch to IPO. Ann holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BS from UC Berkeley.

Alex Sharata

Alex joined NEA in 2020 and is a Partner focused on growth-stage investments across enterprise, fintech, and consumer. He is a board observer of Brale, DeltaStream, Grid, Snowplow, and Weaviate and also works closely with Courtyard, Datafold, Merge, MoonPay, QuoteWell, and VAST Data, among others. Sharata was previously an investor at Vista Equity Partners focused on mature enterprise software companies. Prior to becoming an investor, he was a co-founder of Fractal, a mobile app security company that was acquired in 2017.
Alex joined NEA in 2020 and is a Partner focused on growth-stage investments across enterprise, fintech, and consumer. He is a board observer of Brale, DeltaStream, Grid, Snowplow, and Weaviate and also works closely with Courtyard, Datafold, Merge, MoonPay, QuoteWell, and VAST Data, among others. Sharata was previously an investor at Vista Equity Partners focused on mature enterprise software companies. Prior to becoming an investor, he was a co-founder of Fractal, a mobile app security company that was acquired in 2017.

Mason Murray

Mason joined NEA in 2022 and is currently a Senior Associate on the Technology team, where he focuses on investments in consumer and enterprise companies. Prior to joining NEA, Mason worked on M&A, equity, and debt transactions with Bank of America’s Technology, Media & Telecom investment banking group. Mason graduated from Columbia University with BA degrees in business management and art history.
Mason joined NEA in 2022 and is currently a Senior Associate on the Technology team, where he focuses on investments in consumer and enterprise companies. Prior to joining NEA, Mason worked on M&A, equity, and debt transactions with Bank of America’s Technology, Media & Telecom investment banking group. Mason graduated from Columbia University with BA degrees in business management and art history.

James Kaplan

James joined NEA in 2023 as an investor on the Technology team, focused on consumer and AI apps. Prior to NEA, James spent time at early-stage startups, including GlossGenius, a PLG vertical SaaS business, and consulting with Frost Giant Studios, a Starcraft spinout game studio building the next generation of real-time strategy (RTS) games. He also spent time at Credit Suisse in its technology group. James graduated from the University of Southern California.
James joined NEA in 2023 as an investor on the Technology team, focused on consumer and AI apps. Prior to NEA, James spent time at early-stage startups, including GlossGenius, a PLG vertical SaaS business, and consulting with Frost Giant Studios, a Starcraft spinout game studio building the next generation of real-time strategy (RTS) games. He also spent time at Credit Suisse in its technology group. James graduated from the University of Southern California.