ElevenLabs Hires CFO, Eyes 2028 IPO

London AI voice startup ElevenLabs has hired Ethan Tandowsky, former CFO of Dutch fintech Adyen (CFO since 2023; held finance roles through Adyen’s 2018 IPO), as it eyes a possible IPO in 2028, according to someone with direct knowledge. Founded in 2022 by Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dąbkowski, ElevenLabs trains its own speech models and has moved from YouTube voice-over users into enterprise voice agents for customers including Stripe, Klarna and Deutsche Telekom; it also hired Ashley Kramer (ex-OpenAI enterprise sales) as first CRO. Last month the company said it was on track for $500 million ARR, with more than half from large enterprises, up from $350 million at end of last year, and a spokesperson said it is profitable. February valuation was $11 billion after a $500 million Sequoia-led round; in May it raised more from Nvidia’s venture arm, BlackRock, Wellington and Santander at an undisclosed valuation. TI notes the IPO path will be shaped by Anthropic’s and OpenAI’s forthcoming listings, and that voice agents still depend partly on Anthropic/OpenAI models — creating stickiness and COGS/margin questions for public-market investors. Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas has separately said (CNBC, June) Perplexity also wants a 2028 IPO.