Audio technology startup ElevenLabs allowed its employees to cash out a portion of their vested shares at a $22 billion valuation. This valuation is double the $11 billion level at which the company raised $500 million in February. The $300 million secondary share sale gave employees the opportunity to sell their shares to investors. The transaction was jointly led by Wellington and T. Rowe Price, which are known for private-company investments. The arrangement is an example of the liquidity strategy used to prevent employees at rapidly growing artificial intelligence startups from moving to competitors. ElevenLabs, which is four years old, has organized such a transaction for its employees for the second time; the company completed a $100 million sale at a $6.6 billion valuation in September 2025. Founded in 2022, the company produces realistic human voices and sound effects; with its new valuation, it is joining the ranks of Europe’s most valuable startups.
Why it matters
The transaction shows that allowing employees at private companies to cash out their paper holdings without waiting is becoming an institutional tool for rapidly growing artificial intelligence startups. For employees, this means their stakes in the company can provide liquidity at certain intervals instead of serving only as a long-term prospect; for the company, it means repeating a mechanism aimed at retaining talent. The participation of investors in the sale provides access to ElevenLabs’ valuation in private markets, while also showing that the transaction took place within a framework different from price formation in public markets. However, the text does not explain which financial indicators support the $22 billion valuation or how this valuation is linked to the company’s operating results.
Background
ElevenLabs is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we have published 3 news articles mentioning the company in the past 90 days; the latest is dated October 1, 2026.