- Poland’s state-backed Vinci fund has invested $11 million in ElevenLabs, making the government a direct shareholder in the $11 billion AI voice company.
- The deal also launches AI Lab Poland, a national program that gives early-stage AI startups access to funding, mentorship, and ElevenLabs’ global network of investors and enterprise clients.
- ElevenLabs reached $500 million in annual recurring revenue in the first four months of 2026, adding $150 million in new recurring revenue in just 120 days.
Poland has produced one of the world’s most valuable AI companies. Now it wants to build the ecosystem that produces the next one.
Vinci, the venture arm of Poland’s state development bank BGK Group, has invested $11 million in ElevenLabs, acquiring a minority stake in the AI voice giant and simultaneously launching AI Lab Poland.
This national initiative is designed to give the country’s early-stage AI startups access to capital, expert networks, and the global connections that helped ElevenLabs scale from a Warsaw idea into an $11 billion company.
From a Warsaw frustration to 100 million users
ElevenLabs, based in London, was founded in 2022 by childhood friends Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dąbkowski, both from Warsaw. They were frustrated by Poland’s film dubbing tradition, in which a single monotone narrator voices every character, regardless of the emotion or context.
That frustration led to a company now serving nearly 100 million users in 46 countries. ElevenLabs employs about 530 people in over 50 countries, with offices in London, New York, San Francisco, Warsaw, Tokyo, and Sydney.
The company creates AI voice and audio tools, such as text-to-speech, voice cloning, music generation, dubbing, and conversational agents. These are used by businesses, developers, and creators worldwide. Its platforms support more than 70 languages.
Companies like Salesforce, Cisco, Adobe, and Deutsche Telekom already use its technology at scale. For example, a global broadcaster can use ElevenLabs to dub a live news segment into 30 languages while keeping the anchor’s vocal tone and emotion.
In the AI voice market, ElevenLabs competes with OpenAI’s voice features, Google’s audio tools, and Microsoft’s Azure Cognitive Services. While those companies include voice as part of larger AI platforms, ElevenLabs focuses only on audio. This lets them improve their models faster and offer better quality in areas where natural sound and emotion are important.
$500M ARR, $800M raised, and now a government backer
The Vinci investment brings ElevenLabs’ total funding to over $800 million. The company’s last round, a $500 million Series D closed in February 2026 and led by Sequoia Capital, valued ElevenLabs at $11 billion. Andreessen Horowitz increased its stake fourfold, and ICONIQ Capital tripled its investment. A third close of the same round in May 2026 brought in BlackRock, Wellington Management, NVIDIA, Salesforce, and Santander.
ElevenLabs reached $500 million in annual recurring revenue in the first four months of 2026, up from $350 million at the end of 2025. That means the company added $150 million in new recurring revenue in just 120 days.
Can AI Lab Poland deliver?
AI Lab Poland will connect early-stage startups with funding, expert networks, and direct access to ElevenLabs, giving founders a clear path from Warsaw to global scale.
Poland already has the infrastructure to support this goal: the country has two of Europe’s 19 sovereign AI compute hubs, including the Gaia AI Factory in Kraków and the PIAST AI Factory in Poznań, and produces over 45,000 IT graduates each year.
The AI voice and audio market is expected to reach $ 47.5 billion by 2030, up from about $5 billion today, with a compound annual growth rate of over 14%. Poland has both ambition and infrastructure. Now, AI Lab Poland must show it can turn these strengths into successful companies.
