ElevenLabs, a prominent startup in the field of AI audio, has announced that it has raised $180 million in a Series C funding round, valuing the company at $3.3 billion post-money. The round was co-led by a16z and ICONIQ Growth, with participation from a slew of new and existing investors.

The funding will be used to continue building out ElevenLabs' audio tools and for business development. The company's CEO, Mati Staniszewski, stated that the startup is focusing its research on building audio AI models that are more expressive and have more control. Additionally, ElevenLabs is working on "omni-models" that combine text-based models with its audio models for multimodal interactions.

The interest in ElevenLabs' technology has been significant, with dozens of major publishers and content creators across various verticals, such as media and gaming, using its technology to power their voice and audio features. This has translated into a crowded funding round with many prominent names, including new investors like NEA, World Innovation Lab, Valor, Endeavor Catalyst Fund, and Abu Dhabi investment firm Lunate, as well as existing investors like Sequoia Capital, Salesforce Ventures, and Smash Capital.

In addition to these investors, ElevenLabs has also picked up a number of strategic backers, including Deutsche Telekom, LG Technology Ventures, HubSpot Ventures, NTT DOCOMO Ventures, and RingCentral Ventures. ICONIQ partner Seth Pierrepont will join the company's board, alongside existing board members Jennifer Li from a16z and the co-founders of the company.

Pierrepont expressed his admiration for ElevenLabs, stating that the company has always felt that audio is a very important modality and that there will be a very big company built in this category. He added that as a board member, many of the conversations with the company will be around creating new use cases for audio and finding the right markets for it.

ElevenLabs has raised a total of $281 million to date, with its Series B round of $80 million valuing the company at $1 billion just a year ago. The company's product roadmap includes improving its AI models, growing its conversational AI builder, and reaching more consumers directly and through partnerships.

Staniszewski noted that the company wants to understand what's being said by users in a conversation better and is working on ways to move away from only generating content and understanding and transcribing speech. He added that the company envisions more conversational AI agents on sites, such as news sites, where users would be able to ask questions about stories or ask the bot to summarize them.

However, ElevenLabs has not been without its challenges. The company's technology has been implicated in a few notable misinformation campaigns, including a Russian propaganda operation and the creation of audio deepfakes. In response, the company has implemented a policy prohibiting unauthorized, harmful, or deceptive impersonation and uses a mix of machine-led and human moderation to weed out such content.

Staniszewski emphasized that as one of the frontrunners of AI audio work, the company treats it as its responsibility to build the right safety mechanisms as it builds out the technology. He added that the company will frequently make choices to prioritize safety over speed of deployment or commercial benefit.

With this significant funding round, ElevenLabs is poised to continue its growth and development in the AI audio space, further solidifying its position as a leader in the industry.