ElevenLabs Raises $500M for Global Voice AI

February 10, 2026

🔊 Soundcheck

  • ElevenLabs Raises $500M for Global Voice AI

  • Newo Raises $25M for SMB AI Voice Infrastructure

  • Duck.ai now speaks — securely, privately.

  • CarPlay meets third‑party AI assistants

Read time: 4 minutes

🔥 Hot Mic

Big moves, deep dives, and standout stories.

ElevenLabs raised $500 million in Series D at an $11 billion valuation to expand voice‑AI globally.

ElevenLabs just closed a $500 million Series D round, valuing the company at around $11 billion—three times higher than a year ago. The funds will fuel its ElevenAgents enterprise voice‑AI platform, ramp up research into emotional and conversational models, and accelerate international expansion with local go‑to‑market teams.

The company ended 2025 with about $330 million in annual recurring revenue, driven by enterprise use at clients like Deutsche Telekom, Square, Revolut, and the Ukrainian government. It plans to power both customer‑facing voice agents and creative audio tools across dozens of global cities.

Key Points:

  • Raised $500 million Series D at an $11 billion valuation

  • Annual recurring revenue reached ~$330 million by end of 2025

  • Sequoia Capital led the round; Andrew Reed joins board

  • Funds drive expansion of ElevenAgents, emotional AI, global teams

Takeaway: ElevenLabs’ massive funding and rapid revenue growth confirm voice AI is shifting into a foundational enterprise technology—setting it up as one of the most valuable AI infrastructure plays globally.

Newo, based in San Francisco, secured a $25 million Series A led by Ratmir Timashev, boosting its total funding to about $32 million. The startup offers AI agents that handle inbound calls, SMS, web chat, and messaging to reduce missed connections and recover lost revenue for small businesses. Their platform prioritizes real-world reliability, using a multi-agent 'Zero‑Hallucination Architecture' to verify responses and ensure natural, fast, accurate voice interactions. Newo scales through partners—MSPs, VoIP providers, agencies—allowing rapid deployment and white-labeling across verticals. The platform already powers over 15,000 agents via 200+ certified partners, helping clients like orthodontic practices capture significant incremental revenue in short spans.

Key Points:

  • Raised $25M Series A, total funding now ~$32M.

  • Zero‑Hallucination Architecture ensures response accuracy.

  • Handles calls, SMS, chat, WhatsApp across structured workflows.

  • Deploys via 200+ partners, powering 15,000+ agents.

Takeaway: Newo’s funding underscores how AI voice is shifting from experimental demos to reliable infrastructure, delivering measurable value—like recovered bookings and revenue—for small businesses through real‑world deployments.

Duck.ai adds encrypted, ephemeral real‑time voice chat with privacy built in, no data retained post‑session.

DuckDuckGo has upgraded Duck.ai with a new real‑time voice chat feature that lets you speak aloud and get instant spoken or typed replies. Inspired by its privacy‑first ethos, the system connects your voice through an encrypted relay without storing audio or using it for AI training.

The feature avoids biometric tracking: your voice is streamed directly to OpenAI models only for immediate response, and nothing is saved once the session ends. It’s opt‑in, works in most modern browsers (not yet Firefox), and imposes daily usage limits—higher for subscribers.

Key Points:

  • Encrypted real‑time voice chat added to Duck.ai

  • Audio is streamed only during live session, not stored

  • Neither DuckDuckGo nor OpenAI retains audio post‑chat

  • Feature is optional, browser support excludes Firefox for now

Takeaway: With Duck.ai’s new voice chat, DuckDuckGo brings conversational AI into the hands of users—privacy intact—by delivering ephemeral, encrypted voice interactions with no lingering data footprint.

Apple plans to let users access AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude via CarPlay—while keeping Siri intact.

Apple is reportedly preparing a significant update that would, for the first time, allow drivers to use third‑party AI voice assistants—such as ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Anthropic’s Claude—through CarPlay, rather than being limited to Siri. This shift opens the in‑car platform to conversational AI innovation.

Despite this new flexibility, Siri will remain the default assistant: Apple will not allow third‑party apps to override the Siri button or use their own wake words. Instead, users will need to open the AI assistant’s app within CarPlay, though developers can design the experience to commence in voice mode automatically. The update is expected to arrive within the coming months, possibly aligned with iOS updates or Apple’s annual developer conference.

Key Points:

  • CarPlay will support AI voice apps like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude

  • Siri remains default; third‑party apps can’t replace Siri button

  • Users must manually open third‑party AI app within CarPlay

  • Apps can auto‑launch in voice mode once opened

Takeaway: Apple is cautiously opening CarPlay to more capable conversational assistants from outside developers, balancing user demand for smarter AI with the need to keep Siri’s central role and maintain a controlled, safe in‑car experience.

🎙️ Mic Drop

What else is making noise in voice AI.

Private, real-time voice chat launches for Duck.ai users, combining LLMs and encrypted audio for privacy-conscious interactions. (9to5mac.com)

ElevenLabs triples its valuation with a $500M raise, signaling continued investor confidence in large-scale voice AI. (eweek.com)

With $500M, ElevenLabs plans expansion into agents combining speech, music, and sound effects for wider enterprise use. (theaiinsider.tech)

Voice assistant market projected to reach $59.9B by 2033, propelled by consumer and enterprise deployments and device growth. (globenewswire.com)

Australian regulations now require radio stations to disclose when synthetic voice technology is used on air. (telecompaper.com)

BoldVoice secures $21M to expand AI-driven voice coaching for non-native English speakers—a fast-growing edtech niche. (theaiinsider.tech)

Analysis of architectural and economic challenges voice AI faces catching up with text-based chatbots. (webpronews.com)

Financial regulators warn of rising AI-driven voice phishing attacks targeting families during holidays. (chosun.com)

SilverSentry debuts live Agent verification to fight rising AI voice clone phone scam threats among seniors. (markets.financialcontent.com)

Grassroots workshop advances voice AI inclusion for Dagbani, expanding language coverage in conversational AI systems. (diff.wikimedia.org)

Sarvam’s Bulbul V3 boosts expressive, real-time AI voice output for India’s diverse languages—enabling smarter localized bots. (varindia.com)

A hobby project brings expressive, emotion-reactive voice AI to low-cost ESP32 displays, sparking DIY hardware innovation. (xda-developers.com)

Explainer: How DuckDuckGo’s new private voice chats operate end-to-end, using encrypted streams and OpenAI LLMs. (ndtvprofit.com)