ElevenLabs raises $500M Series D to scale voice and agentic AI

ElevenLabs’ $500 million Series D at an $11 billion valuation firmly cements it as one of the most valuable pure‑play generative AI startups and a flagship bet on agentic AI. The company is moving from simple text‑to‑speech into "ElevenAgents"—autonomous voice and chat agents that can handle complex, multi‑turn conversations and integrate into enterprise workflows. ([prtimes.jp](https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000023.000160611.html)) This is exactly the kind of capability stack—real‑time dialogue, tool use, persistent context—that many in the field expect to underpin practical AGI systems.

Strategically, this round signals that late‑stage capital is still willing to underwrite very large checks for AI companies that can show real revenue scale—ElevenLabs claims over $330 million in ARR and blue‑chip clients like Deutsche Telekom, Square and government deployments. ([prtimes.jp](https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000023.000160611.html)) The geographic expansion plan is equally telling: local teams across major tech and media hubs from Tokyo and Seoul to Bengaluru, London and São Paulo indicates a land‑grab for enterprise speech and agent infrastructure before hyperscalers fully commoditise the space.

For the broader race to AGI, this looks like a bet that highly specialised, vertical “audio AGI” and agentic stacks will coexist with, and potentially shape, the capabilities demanded from frontier foundation models. If ElevenLabs can turn conversational agents into a reliable, revenue‑rich product layer, it raises the bar for what investors expect from other AGI‑adjacent startups: not just research breakthroughs, but durable, enterprise‑grade agent platforms.