EU-backed €5B fund in talks to join ElevenLabs' $500M Series E
What's the deal? The Scaleup Europe Fund is in talks to invest in a Series E round of more than $500 million for ElevenLabs, the London-based voice AI company, Bloomberg reported. The €5 billion fund is managed by EQTDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and backed by the European CommissionDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. Both sides declined to comment, and people close to the discussions say a deal isn't guaranteed.
Why now? The round would come just seven months after ElevenLabs raised $500 million in February at an $11 billion valuation, in a Series D led by Sequoia CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. Bloomberg reported in July that the company was in early talks for a secondary sale that could value it at around $22 billion.
By the numbers: ElevenLabs reported more than $330 million in annual recurring revenue for 2025, and crossed $500 million within the first four months of 2026. At the RAISE Summit in Paris in July, chief executive Mati Staniszewski traced the ramp — roughly 20 months to $100 million, then 10 months to $200 million, then five months to $300 million by the close of 2025 — and did not dispute a current run rate near $600 million. The company builds AI models that create and clone voices for dubbing, audiobooks, advertising, and call centres.
What's the endgame? The Scaleup Europe Fund launched this year to close Europe's late-stage funding gap, keeping promising companies raising capital at home rather than turning to US investors. It has already backed ICEYE, Lovable, Mistral AI, and Tandem Health.
Why ElevenLabs? On paper it is an unusual pick, as the company is based in London, outside the EU. But founders Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dąbkowski are from Warsaw, and the company is growing its team in Poland, where the state development bank bought an $11 million stake in June. Staniszewski has said ElevenLabs could be ready for an initial public offering in two to three years and might consider a dual listing in Warsaw.
The signal: A prospective raise above $500 million would rank among the largest Series E rounds for a UK natural language processing company, above the 96th percentile of comparable deals. It also reflects heavy capital flowing into voice AI, where ElevenLabs competes with OpenAI, GoogleDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and Microsoft — and where Brussels is now trying to keep Europe's fastest-growing startups on the continent.
Read more: thenextweb.com, TNW (RAISE Summit), Tech Funding News, Bloomberg
Image credit: ElevenLabs
