ElevenLabs just hit $6.6B, but its CEO says the real money isn't in voice anymore

Episode notes

ElevenLabs has made a name for itself building realistic AI voices. What started as two Polish engineers annoyed by terrible movie dubbing has grown into a profitable company now valued at $6.6 billion , doubling its valuation from just nine months ago. The company recently announced a $100 million tender offer led by Sequoia and ICONIQ, with participation from a16z and others, as its tech powers everything from Fortnite characters to customer service bots and goes toe-to-toe with OpenAI to become the default voice of AI. Today on TechCrunch's Equity podcast, we’re bringing you a conversation with CEO Mati Staniszewski from this year's Disrupt, where he made a surprising admission: he thinks voice models will be commoditized in just a couple of years. So what's ElevenLabs' plan when everyone else catches up?

• What if the AI giants are building the roads, not the destinations? Chi-Hua Chien thinks he knows who wins61 / 100
• The US banned Anthropic's Fable 5 release, but the numbers don't seem to care36 / 100
• NEA's Tiffany Luck on AI IPOs, personal agents, and the ROI reckoning47 / 100
• The SpaceX IPO has finally arrived
• It’s hot IPO summer, and the MANGOS are ripe