Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross have co-led a $19m (£14.9m) Series A round for the generative AI startup ElevenLabs.
The startup has created generative AI models that read out text in cloned, synthetic or customised voices. Its speech creation tools are used for audiobooks, video game characters and reading content to the visually impaired.
Since launching in beta in January, the firm says it now has more than one million users that have produced more than 10 years of audio.
“Our mission is to be the ultimate tool for storytelling, dissolving language barriers and putting all audiences in the reach of all content creators in a safe and responsible way,” said Mati Staniszewski, CEO and co-founder of ElevenLabs.
“With an incredible, growing team and these exceptional investors, ElevenLabs is now ever closer to realizing its long-term goal of making all content universally accessible in any language and any voice.”
ElevenLabs is headquartered in New York, with an office in London where CEO Staniszewski works from. It has an additional location in Warsaw.
The company will spend proceeds from the fundraise on a research hub and new products.
The ElevenLabs Series A additionally received backing including the likes of Credo Ventures, Concept Ventures, Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger, Brendan Iribe co-founder of Oculus VR along with Deepmind and Inflection co-founder Mustafa Suleyman.
In January, the AI startup collected $2m in a pre-seed round.
This month saw the US-based venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz open its first outside office in London.
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