{ "id": "epszytaf94", "slug": "mati-staniszewski", "title": "Mati Staniszewski", "updated": "2026-10-15", "topic_path": [ { "id": "technology", "label": "Technology and the built world", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/technology" }, { "id": "technology.computing", "label": "Computing and digital systems", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/technology.computing" }, { "id": "technology.computing.modern_ai", "label": "Modern AI: foundation models, generative AI, and the AI industry", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/technology.computing.modern_ai" }, { "id": "technology.computing.modern_ai.industry", "label": "AI companies, people, and products", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/technology.computing.modern_ai.industry" }, { "id": "technology.computing.modern_ai.industry.ai_founders_executives", "label": "AI founders and executives", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/technology.computing.modern_ai.industry.ai_founders_executives" }, { "id": "technology.computing.modern_ai.industry.ai_founders_executives.applied-ai-startup-founders", "label": "Applied AI startup founders", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/technology.computing.modern_ai.industry.ai_founders_executives.applied-ai-startup-founders" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t2021.technology.computing.modern_ai.industry", "label": "Western Europe · 2021 and later: AI companies, people, and products", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2021.technology.computing.modern_ai.industry", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2021", "label": "Western Europe · 2021 and later", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2021" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2021.technology", "label": "Technology and the built world", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2021.technology" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2021.technology.computing", "label": "Computing and digital systems", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2021.technology.computing" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2021.technology.computing.modern_ai", "label": "Modern AI: foundation models, generative AI, and the AI industry", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2021.technology.computing.modern_ai" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2021.technology.computing.modern_ai.industry", "label": "AI companies, people, and products", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2021.technology.computing.modern_ai.industry" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Mati Staniszewski, born Mateusz Staniszewski, is a Polish entrepreneur and the cofounder and CEO of ElevenLabs, an AI audio company he founded in 2022 with Piotr Dąbkowski.", "snippet": "Mati Staniszewski, born Mateusz Staniszewski, is a Polish entrepreneur and the cofounder and CEO of ElevenLabs, an AI audio company he founded in 2022 with Piotr Dąbkowski.", "node": "technology.computing.modern_ai.industry.ai_founders_executives.applied-ai-startup-founders", "markdown": "# Mati Staniszewski\n\n**Mateusz \"Mati\" Staniszewski** is a Polish entrepreneur, cofounder and chief executive officer of [ElevenLabs](https://www.edgepedia.org/elevenlabs), an AI audio research company that generates lifelike synthetic speech, clones voices, and dubs content across dozens of languages. He founded the company in 2022 with his high-school friend Piotr Dąbkowski, and under his leadership it grew from a Discord text-to-speech bot into one of the most valuable private AI companies, with reported valuations rising from $1.1 billion in 2024 to $22 billion by September 2026.[1](https://elevenlabs.io/blog/authors/mati-staniszewski?page=3) • [2](https://time.com/7012732/piotr-dabkowski/) • [3](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/24/twenty-minutes-with-the-ceo-of-elevenlabs-now-reportedly-valued-at-22-billion/?trk=article-ssr-frontend-pulse_little-text-block)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Full name | Mateusz \"Mati\" Staniszewski[4](https://warsawski.eu/pl/eternal-7187-jak-mateusz-staniszewski-rozbogacil-sie-uczac-sztuczna-inteligencje-mowic) |\n| Role | Cofounder and CEO of ElevenLabs, founded 2022 with Piotr Dąbkowski (CTO)[1](https://elevenlabs.io/blog/authors/mati-staniszewski?page=3) • [5](https://elevenlabs.pl/poradniki/mati-staniszewski-piotr-dabkowski-polscy-zalozyciele-elevenlabs/) |\n| Education | Mathematics at Imperial College London, after growing up in Poland[1](https://elevenlabs.io/blog/authors/mati-staniszewski?page=3) |\n| Earlier career | Palantir Technologies, deploying technology with enterprises and governments; earlier stints at Opera Software and BlackRock[1](https://elevenlabs.io/blog/authors/mati-staniszewski?page=3) • [4](https://warsawski.eu/pl/eternal-7187-jak-mateusz-staniszewski-rozbogacil-sie-uczac-sztuczna-inteligencje-mowic) |\n| Funding milestones | $19M Series A (June 2023, $99M post-money); $80M at $1.1B (January 2024); $180M Series C (January 2025); $500M Sequoia-led round at $11B (February 2026)[6](https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/20/voice-generating-platform-elevenlabs-raises-19m-launches-detection-tool/) • [2](https://time.com/7012732/piotr-dabkowski/) • [7](https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/04/elevenlabs-raises-500m-from-sequioia-at-a-11-billion-valuation/?trk=article-ssr-frontend-pulse_little-text-block) |\n| Revenue | $330M ARR at the end of 2025; $600M ARR by September 2026, with 55% or more from enterprise customers[7](https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/04/elevenlabs-raises-500m-from-sequioia-at-a-11-billion-valuation/?trk=article-ssr-frontend-pulse_little-text-block) • [3](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/24/twenty-minutes-with-the-ceo-of-elevenlabs-now-reportedly-valued-at-22-billion/?trk=article-ssr-frontend-pulse_little-text-block) |\n| Recognition | TIME100 AI list, 2025[8](https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305868/mati-staniszewski/) |\n\n## Background and education\n\nStaniszewski grew up in Poland and moved to the United Kingdom to study [Mathematics](https://www.edgepedia.org/mathematics) at [Imperial College London](https://www.edgepedia.org/imperial-college-london).[1](https://elevenlabs.io/blog/authors/mati-staniszewski?page=3) He and Piotr Dąbkowski met as teenagers at XXXIII Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Mikołaja Kopernika in Warsaw, where they started an [International Baccalaureate](https://www.edgepedia.org/international-baccalaureate) class together and bonded in mathematics classes; Dąbkowski went on to study engineering at the University of Oxford and completed an MPhil at the University of Cambridge in 2017.[5](https://elevenlabs.pl/poradniki/mati-staniszewski-piotr-dabkowski-polscy-zalozyciele-elevenlabs/) • [9](https://sequoiacap.com/podcast/training-data-mati-staniszewski)\n\nBefore founding ElevenLabs, Staniszewski worked at Palantir, where he embedded with enterprises and governments to help them deploy new technology, including building optimization models and bringing them to customers.[1](https://elevenlabs.io/blog/authors/mati-staniszewski?page=3) • [10](https://zamantika.com/a16z/status/2098060473711386769) A Polish profile also places him at Opera Software and at [BlackRock](https://www.edgepedia.org/blackrock), where he deployed the Aladdin Wealth platform.[4](https://warsawski.eu/pl/eternal-7187-jak-mateusz-staniszewski-rozbogacil-sie-uczac-sztuczna-inteligencje-mowic) The Palantir experience shaped how he later organized ElevenLabs, including the use of forward-deployed engineers who work directly with customers.[10](https://zamantika.com/a16z/status/2098060473711386769)\n\n## Founding ElevenLabs\n\nThe founding idea came from Polish film dubbing. In Poland, foreign films are traditionally narrated by a single male voice actor, a lektor, who reads every part, male or female, in a flat monotone over the original soundtrack. Staniszewski has described this as killing all emotion in the performance, and he re-experienced the problem in late 2021 when Dąbkowski, watching a film with a girlfriend who did not speak English, turned on the Polish narration.[9](https://sequoiacap.com/podcast/training-data-mati-staniszewski) • [11](https://davidsenra.podhood.com/54103b50-6a65-41be-9fe2-8a4b709d0001)\n\nWhile Staniszewski was at Palantir and Dąbkowski at Google, the two ran weekend hack projects together, including a recommendation algorithm, a crypto risk analyzer, and in early 2021 an audio project that analyzed how a person speaks and suggested improvements. That project showed them the state of the art in speech technology, and in 2022 they decided to build a company aimed at voice AI that could preserve emotion and intonation across languages, including Polish.[9](https://sequoiacap.com/podcast/training-data-mati-staniszewski) • [5](https://elevenlabs.pl/poradniki/mati-staniszewski-piotr-dabkowski-polscy-zalozyciele-elevenlabs/) The company's early product began as a Discord text-to-speech bot before shifting toward emotional, natural-sounding speech generation for creators after user feedback.[12](https://ulisten.ai/channels/stanford-online/stanford-cs153-frontier-systems-mati-staniszewski-from-eleve_vfF011ko89o/transcript)\n\nThe name ElevenLabs came from a search for something more generic than candidates like SpeechLab or VoiceLab; eleven was the founders' lucky number and, in Staniszewski's words, is also important in mathematics.[13](https://mycompanypolska.pl/artykul/ponaddzwiekowi/15803)\n\n## Growth of the company\n\nElevenLabs raised a $19 million Series A in June 2023, co-led by Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, and [Andreessen Horowitz](https://www.edgepedia.org/andreessen-horowitz), valuing the company at $99 million post-money roughly a year after launch.[6](https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/20/voice-generating-platform-elevenlabs-raises-19m-launches-detection-tool/) In January 2024 it received $80 million from Andreessen Horowitz and other investors at a $1.1 billion valuation, and its dubbing technology could make a speaker sound fluent across 29 languages.[2](https://time.com/7012732/piotr-dabkowski/) A $180 million Series C was announced on January 30, 2025.[1](https://elevenlabs.io/blog/authors/mati-staniszewski?page=3) In February 2026 the company raised $500 million led by [Sequoia Capital](https://www.edgepedia.org/sequoia-capital) at an $11 billion valuation, more than three times its January 2025 valuation, having closed 2025 at $330 million in annual recurring revenue.[7](https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/04/elevenlabs-raises-500m-from-sequioia-at-a-11-billion-valuation/?trk=article-ssr-frontend-pulse_little-text-block) By September 2026 Staniszewski put annual recurring revenue at $600 million, with 55 percent or more from classic enterprise customers, and the company was reportedly valued at $22 billion by its backers.[3](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/24/twenty-minutes-with-the-ceo-of-elevenlabs-now-reportedly-valued-at-22-billion/?trk=article-ssr-frontend-pulse_little-text-block)\n\nThe customer base spans creators and large organizations. In 2025 TIME reported that ElevenLabs worked with more than 1,000 companies, comprising 60 percent of the [Fortune 500](https://www.edgepedia.org/fortune-500), and had paid $5 million to roughly 5,000 creators whose voices the company licenses.[8](https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305868/mati-staniszewski/) Enterprise deployments include Klarna's first-line phone support for 35 million U.S. customers, [Deutsche Telekom](https://www.edgepedia.org/deutsche-telekom), Cisco, and Adobe.[3](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/24/twenty-minutes-with-the-ceo-of-elevenlabs-now-reportedly-valued-at-22-billion/?trk=article-ssr-frontend-pulse_little-text-block) Around half of the company's $193 million in trailing 12-month revenue in late 2025 came from corporate customers such as Cisco, Twilio, and Adecco, and Forbes reported that its model quality allowed it to charge up to three times as much as American rivals.[14](https://forbes-forbescom-live.non-prod.zephrcf.com/sites/iainmartin/2025/12/01/how-a-tiny-polish-startup-became-the-multi-billion-dollar-voice-of-ai/)\n\nHigh-profile deployments have included the voice of [Darth Vader](https://www.edgepedia.org/darth-vader) in Fortnite, built with the estate of [James Earl Jones](https://www.edgepedia.org/james-earl-jones) and used by millions of players in live conversation, and, in July 2024, an AI voice that let Virginia congresswoman [Jennifer Wexton](https://www.edgepedia.org/jennifer-wexton), who had lost her voice to a neurological disorder, address the U.S. House, the first use of an AI voice in government.[15](https://time.com/7325957/mati-staniszewski-elevenlabs-interview/) • [8](https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305868/mati-staniszewski/)\n\n## Position on voice as an interface\n\nStaniszewski argues that voice is becoming a primary interface for AI, moving beyond mimicking speech to working with the reasoning of large language models in real-time conversational agents. He has set passing the [Turing test](https://www.edgepedia.org/turing-test) for a conversation with an [AI agent](https://www.edgepedia.org/ai-agent), in which the interaction feels like talking to a real person with emotional and contextual awareness, as the research goal for the company's conversational products.[15](https://time.com/7325957/mati-staniszewski-elevenlabs-interview/) • [16](https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/05/elevenlabs-ceo-voice-is-the-next-interface-for-ai/) He has also predicted that audio models will become commoditized over time, with quality differences persisting for a few years before narrowing, and has said he does not mind margins being squeezed if that expands market share.[3](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/24/twenty-minutes-with-the-ceo-of-elevenlabs-now-reportedly-valued-at-22-billion/?trk=article-ssr-frontend-pulse_little-text-block)\n\n## Safety and misuse\n\nElevenLabs' voice cloning attracted misuse soon after launch, with bad actors generating harmful audio of public figures, and the company responded by restricting voice cloning to paid accounts and launching the AI Speech Classifier, a tool to detect whether audio was generated by its models.[6](https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/20/voice-generating-platform-elevenlabs-raises-19m-launches-detection-tool/) Staniszewski has described the company's safeguards as resting on three pieces: provenance, so every generation traces back to the account that created it; moderation of both text and voices for fraud, scams, and child safety; and a classifier that lets people check whether audio is AI-generated, developed with partners including Oxford, Berkeley, Reality Defender, and [AI safety institutes](https://www.edgepedia.org/ai-safety-institutes) in the U.S. and U.K.[15](https://time.com/7325957/mati-staniszewski-elevenlabs-interview/) He has said businesses should disclose when a customer is talking to an AI agent rather than a human.[3](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/24/twenty-minutes-with-the-ceo-of-elevenlabs-now-reportedly-valued-at-22-billion/?trk=article-ssr-frontend-pulse_little-text-block)\n\n## Ties to Poland\n\nStaniszewski has kept a visible connection to his home country. He has also become an active angel investor in Polish startups, including a backing of Wordware AI, which raised 120 million złoty in a seed round.[17](https://executivemagazine.pl/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Executive_Magazine_1-2026.pdf) In written evidence to the UK House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee, he explained that he and Dąbkowski chose to base ElevenLabs in London for its talent pool, academic ecosystem, and creative industry, while maintaining offices in New York and Warsaw.[18](https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/132365/pdf/)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Mati Staniszewski, author page, ElevenLabs](https://elevenlabs.io/blog/authors/mati-staniszewski?page=3)\n2. [Piotr Dabkowski, TIME100 AI 2024, TIME](https://time.com/7012732/piotr-dabkowski/)\n3. [ElevenLabs' CEO on margins, IPO timing, and telling customers they're talking to a bot, TechCrunch (September 24, 2026)](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/24/twenty-minutes-with-the-ceo-of-elevenlabs-now-reportedly-valued-at-22-billion/?trk=article-ssr-frontend-pulse_little-text-block)\n4. [Jak Mateusz Staniszewski rozbogacił się, ucząc sztuczną inteligencję mówić, warsawski.eu](https://warsawski.eu/pl/eternal-7187-jak-mateusz-staniszewski-rozbogacil-sie-uczac-sztuczna-inteligencje-mowic)\n5. [Mati Staniszewski i Piotr Dąbkowski — polscy założyciele ElevenLabs, ElevenLabs PL](https://elevenlabs.pl/poradniki/mati-staniszewski-piotr-dabkowski-polscy-zalozyciele-elevenlabs/)\n6. [Voice-generating platform ElevenLabs raises $19M, launches detection tool, TechCrunch (June 20, 2023)](https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/20/voice-generating-platform-elevenlabs-raises-19m-launches-detection-tool/)\n7. [ElevenLabs raises $500M from Sequoia at an $11 billion valuation, TechCrunch (February 4, 2026)](https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/04/elevenlabs-raises-500m-from-sequioia-at-a-11-billion-valuation/?trk=article-ssr-frontend-pulse_little-text-block)\n8. [Mati Staniszewski: The 100 Most Influential People in AI 2025, TIME](https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305868/mati-staniszewski/)\n9. [ElevenLabs CEO: Voice Will Be the Core Interface for Tech, Sequoia Capital, Training Data podcast](https://sequoiacap.com/podcast/training-data-mati-staniszewski)\n10. [ElevenLabs co-founder and CEO Mati Staniszewski on the company's origin story, a16z via Zamantika](https://zamantika.com/a16z/status/2098060473711386769)\n11. [Building One of AI's Fastest-Growing Companies, Mati Staniszewski with David Senra](https://davidsenra.podhood.com/54103b50-6a65-41be-9fe2-8a4b709d0001)\n12. [Stanford CS153 Frontier Systems: Mati Staniszewski from ElevenLabs, transcript](https://ulisten.ai/channels/stanford-online/stanford-cs153-frontier-systems-mati-staniszewski-from-eleve_vfF011ko89o/transcript)\n13. [Ponaddźwiękowi. Wywiad z Matim Staniszewskim, My Company Polska](https://mycompanypolska.pl/artykul/ponaddzwiekowi/15803)\n14. [How A Tiny Polish Startup Became The Multi-Billion-Dollar Voice Of AI, Forbes](https://forbes-forbescom-live.non-prod.zephrcf.com/sites/iainmartin/2025/12/01/how-a-tiny-polish-startup-became-the-multi-billion-dollar-voice-of-ai/)\n15. [ElevenLabs CEO Mati Staniszewski on Darth Vader, Competition and Preventing Misuse, TIME (October 15, 2025)](https://time.com/7325957/mati-staniszewski-elevenlabs-interview/)\n16. [ElevenLabs CEO: Voice is the next interface for AI, TechCrunch (February 5, 2026)](https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/05/elevenlabs-ceo-voice-is-the-next-interface-for-ai/)\n17. [Executive Magazine 1/2026 (PDF)](https://executivemagazine.pl/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Executive_Magazine_1-2026.pdf)\n18. [Mati Staniszewski, Co-founder, ElevenLabs — written evidence (ACT0057), House of Lords Communications and Digital Select Committee](https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/132365/pdf/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Technology and the built world › Computing and digital systems › Modern AI: foundation models, generative AI, and the AI industry › AI companies, people, and products › AI founders and executives › Applied AI startup founders*\n\n*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 15, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026 · Last review: Oct 15, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/mati-staniszewski", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/mati-staniszewski.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Mati Staniszewski\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/mati-staniszewski. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Mati Staniszewski](https://www.edgepedia.org/mati-staniszewski)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/mati-staniszewski](https://www.edgepedia.org/mati-staniszewski). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Mati Staniszewski\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/mati-staniszewski. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Mati Staniszewski, born Mateusz Staniszewski, is a Polish entrepreneur and the cofounder and CEO of ElevenLabs, an AI audio company he founded in 2022 with Piotr Dąbkowski." }