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Short answer: ElevenLabs AI founder Mati Staniszewski (CEO) and Piotr Dabkowski (CTO) started the company in 2022. They began with a human-like text-to-speech model and built three platforms — ElevenAgents, ElevenCreative, and ElevenAPI — valued at $22 billion on 30 Sep 2026 (checked 6 Nov 2026).
Best for: Anyone who wants to know who is behind ElevenLabs before trusting it with their voice, scripts, or customer calls.
Not for: Anyone who only needs a price — the founders do not change what a plan costs, and the free plan is the same whoever started the company.
Starting price: Free $0 (10,000 credits/month) (checked 6 Nov 2026); paid plans from $6/mo for Starter (checked 6 Nov 2026) — see the full pricing guide.
Who founded ElevenLabs?
ElevenLabs was founded by two people: Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dabkowski. Both call themselves cofounders on ElevenLabs’ own blog author pages, and the company’s funding announcements name them the same way. Mati is the chief executive officer (CEO) and Piotr is the chief technology officer (CTO). The split is clean: Mati leads the company and its teams, and Piotr leads research and engineering.
Mati Staniszewski — CEO and cofounder
Mati grew up in Poland and moved to the UK to study Mathematics at Imperial College London. Before ElevenLabs, he worked at Palantir, where he worked inside enterprises and governments to help them put new technology into use. On ElevenLabs’ blog he writes as the cofounder who leads the teams building AI that can communicate at a human level.
Piotr Dabkowski — CTO and cofounder
Piotr worked on machine learning at Google before ElevenLabs, and studied for an MPhil at the University of Cambridge, where he published research on AI-based image detection at NeurIPS. At ElevenLabs he leads the research and engineering teams behind the company’s audio models. His byline appears on the technical launches, including the Eleven v3 and Eleven v4 model posts.
Why they started ElevenLabs
The company was founded in 2022, and its first product was a text-to-speech model that sounded human. That is the whole starting point in ElevenLabs’ own telling: its February 2026 funding post says it “began by developing a truly human-like AI text to speech model.” The founders then widened the work from one voice model to the full set of audio tools the company sells today — speech, music, sound effects, transcription, dubbing, and voice agents — and its current stated direction is building the infrastructure for an era in which every person and business can create and consume audio in any language, at any scale.
Two details from the founders’ backgrounds explain the shape of the company. Mati’s Palantir work was about putting technology into real organisations, and Piotr’s Google and Cambridge work was machine-learning research. ElevenLabs is the combination: a research lab that ships products, with a safety team of researchers, engineers, and policy staff, and a free Impact Program that gives licences to people with accessibility needs and to nonprofits in healthcare, education, and culture.
The three platforms the founders built
ElevenLabs now organises its products into three platforms, listed on its About page. Each one comes from the same voice technology, aimed at a different job.
ElevenAgents — voice and chat agents
ElevenAgents is the platform for voice and chat agents that handle support, sales, and triage. It is built on real-time text to speech and speech to text, so an agent can listen and reply in a live conversation. The agent minutes are capped by plan — Free gets 15 minutes, Starter 75, Creator 275, and Pro 1,238 (checked 6 Nov 2026) — and the conversational AI pricing page lists the overage rates on top of those caps.
ElevenCreative — speech, music, and video
ElevenCreative covers speech, music, sound effects, images, and video in more than 90 languages. The tools inside it are text to speech, speech to text, voice cloning, Voice Design, AI dubbing, and Studio. The speech-to-text tool is Scribe v2, which handles 99 languages, and the audio-cleanup tool is Voice Isolator, which strips background noise from a recording. To clone a voice, the how to clone a voice walkthrough uses Instant Voice Cloning on a paid plan.
ElevenAPI — the developer platform
ElevenAPI is the developer side: low-latency streaming and real-time models with SDKs, built on the company’s most advanced models. It is the part of ElevenLabs a developer meets first, and it is where the per-character credit billing applies — the standard voice model uses 1 credit per character, with faster models costing less per character through the API.
Funding and valuation: the timeline
The founders have raised money in public three times, and the numbers tell the growth story in one line: a $500 million round in February 2026, $500 million in annual recurring revenue three months later, and a $22 billion valuation by September 2026.
| Date | What happened | Number |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | ElevenLabs founded by Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dabkowski | — |
| 4 Feb 2026 | Series D round led by Sequoia Capital | $500M at an $11B valuation |
| 5 May 2026 | Annual recurring revenue crosses $500M | $500M ARR; 2025 ARR over $330M |
| 30 Sep 2026 | Valuation reported on the About page | $22B |
The Series D round was led by Sequoia Capital, with Andrew Reed joining the board. Existing investors Andreessen Horowitz and ICONIQ quadrupled and tripled their stakes, and Lightspeed, Evantic Capital, and BOND joined as new investors. The May 2026 update added BlackRock and NVIDIA as new investors, alongside Jamie Foxx. Sequoia’s Reed called Mati and Piotr “exceptional founders and leaders” in the announcement.
What the founders are doing now
The founders are still the public faces of the product launches. Mati wrote the September 2026 post introducing Eleven v4, described as the company’s most emotive model yet, and Piotr wrote the June 2025 post introducing Eleven v3 in alpha. In June 2026 the company signed a memorandum of understanding with the UK Government and held a Summit in Warsaw, where Mati shared the story behind ElevenLabs. The same year brought a FedRAMP 20x Class A certification, new launches in Singapore, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Canada, and a multi-year agreement with Universal Music Group. New hires in 2026 include Ethan Tandowsky as chief financial officer and Ashley Kramer as chief revenue officer.
How to try ElevenLabs
The free plan costs $0 and includes 10,000 credits a month (checked 6 Nov 2026). Starter costs $6 a month for 30,000 credits, Creator $22 a month for 121,000 credits, and Pro $99 a month for 600,000 credits (checked 6 Nov 2026). The $1 Starter first-month offer was shown until Nov 8 when checked on 6 Nov 2026. For the full plan table, see the full pricing guide. Voice cloning needs a paid plan: Instant Voice Cloning is on Starter and above, while Professional Voice Cloning needs Creator.
Pros
• A real free plan: $0 with 10,000 credits a month (checked 6 Nov 2026).
• More than 90 languages, with the newest model, Eleven v4, the most emotive yet.
• The founders are still building the product — both write the launch posts.
Cons
• Voice cloning needs a paid plan from $6 a month; the free plan cannot clone.
• Credits are spent per character, so long audio gets expensive fast.
• The $1 Starter price is a first-month offer only, shown until Nov 8 when checked on 6 Nov 2026.
• Professional Voice Cloning needs the $22-a-month Creator plan (checked 6 Nov 2026).
Who should NOT pick ElevenLabs
Do not pick ElevenLabs if you need video generation — it is an audio company first, and its video tools sit inside the creative suite rather than leading it. Do not pick it for a free voice clone, because cloning needs a paid plan. And do not pick it if you need unlimited audio for a flat fee: every plan is capped by credits, and the caps decide how much you can make in a month.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the founder of ElevenLabs?
Two people: Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dabkowski. Mati is the CEO and Piotr is the CTO, and both call themselves cofounders on ElevenLabs’ own blog author pages. Mati leads the company and its teams, and Piotr leads research and engineering. Their bylines appear together on the funding announcements.
When was ElevenLabs founded?
In 2022. ElevenLabs’ February 2026 funding post states it plainly: “Founded in 2022, ElevenLabs began by developing a truly human-like AI text to speech model.” The company was about four years old when it raised its $500 million Series D round in February 2026, and it crossed $500 million in annual recurring revenue three months later, in May 2026.
Where is ElevenLabs based?
ElevenLabs lists offices in London, New York, San Francisco, and Warsaw, and says it works worldwide. The founders’ backgrounds are Polish and British: Mati grew up in Poland and studied in London, and Piotr studied at Cambridge. Not stated on the official About page as of 6 Nov 2026: a single headquarters city.
How much is ElevenLabs worth?
$22 billion, as reported on the company’s About page on 30 Sep 2026. That is double the $11 billion valuation from the $500 million Series D round in February 2026. The company also reported crossing $500 million in annual recurring revenue in May 2026, after more than $330 million in 2025.
Is ElevenLabs free?
Yes, on the free plan: $0 a month with 10,000 credits (checked 6 Nov 2026). Paid plans start at $6 a month for Starter with 30,000 credits, and the $1 Starter first-month offer was shown until Nov 8 when checked on 6 Nov 2026. Voice cloning needs a paid plan, so the free plan cannot clone a voice.
What did the founders do before ElevenLabs?
Mati worked at Palantir, where he worked inside enterprises and governments to help them put new technology into use, and studied Mathematics at Imperial College London. Piotr worked on machine learning at Google and studied for an MPhil at the University of Cambridge, where he published NeurIPS research on AI-based image detection.
Sources checked
• ElevenLabs About — company, platforms, and latest updates: https://elevenlabs.io/about
• ElevenLabs blog — ElevenLabs raises $500M Series D at $11B valuation (4 Feb 2026): https://elevenlabs.io/blog/series-d
• ElevenLabs blog — Mati Staniszewski author page: https://elevenlabs.io/blog/authors/mati-staniszewski
• ElevenLabs blog — Piotr Dabkowski author page: https://elevenlabs.io/blog/authors/piotr-dabkowski
• ElevenLabs pricing — plan prices and credit amounts: https://elevenlabs.io/pricing
Checked 6 Nov 2026.
Last updated 6 Nov 2026. Prices checked on the official pricing page on that date; confirm at checkout.