ElevenLabs doubles valuation to $22B — via an employee tender, not a round
ElevenLabs announced a $300M employee tender at a $22B valuation, double its February price; Wellington and T. Rowe Price co-led.
ElevenLabs announced a $300M employee tender offer on September 30 at a $22B valuation — double the $11B price of its February $500M round. It is not a new primary round; the company explicitly positions the deal as a retention tool against poaching.
Facts
- Structure: $300M employee tender at $22B, co-led by Wellington and T. Rowe Price; Sequoia participated in the February round.
- Tender history: a $100M tender in September 2025 priced the company at $6.6B — the valuation reference has gone 6.6 → 11 → 22 in a year.
- Company: CEO and co-founder Mati Staniszewski, founded 2022, HQ in New York and London; no revenue figures disclosed.
- Framing: officially an anti-poaching retention move.
Editorial take
Using a tender rather than a primary round to lift the valuation says two things: the market still pays a premium for the voice-category leader, and talent competition has gotten expensive enough to require secondaries. For teams picking a voice vendor, this is the second signal in weeks after the v4 model launch — the company is in acceleration mode; compare with Instinct’s $10B Series C for category pricing. Note the valuation is the tender’s own price, not an open-market one.