ElevenLabs was founded in 2022 by two Poles, Mati (Mateusz) Staniszewski, the CEO, and Piotr Dąbkowski, the CTO. They met at a Warsaw high school, and the company they built makes AI voice software. It was valued at $11 billion after a $500 million round in February 2026, and at $22 billion in a September 2026 share sale.
Who are the ElevenLabs co-founders?
- Mati Staniszewski is chief executive. He is a former Palantir deployment strategist and also worked at BlackRock earlier, according to Forbes Poland.
- Piotr Dąbkowski is chief technology officer. He is a former machine learning engineer at Google, per Wikipedia's company entry.
ElevenLabs names both men as co-founders in its Series D announcement, which also confirms the 2022 founding year.
Age and nationality
Both founders are Polish. Forbes Poland gives birth years of 1995 for Staniszewski and 1994 for Dąbkowski, which puts them at roughly 31 and 32 in 2026 depending on their birthdays. The company itself does not publish their ages, so treat the birth years as press-reported.
How they met and where the idea came from
According to Forbes Poland, the two attended the XXXIII Mikołaj Kopernik High School in Warsaw. Both worked at Opera Software before their paths split: Dąbkowski moved on to Google, Staniszewski to BlackRock and then Palantir. Staniszewski studied at Imperial College London, Dąbkowski at Oxford and Cambridge.
The reported starting point was poor dubbing. Polish viewers are used to a single voice reading every character over a foreign film, and the founders wanted software that could produce more natural, emotional speech. Wikipedia's account and Forbes Poland both describe weak dubbing as the inspiration. Sources differ on the exact month of incorporation in 2022, so only the year is safe to state.
Funding and valuation timeline
Rounds below follow Wikipedia's summary of press coverage. The February 2026 figures come from the company's own announcement; the September 2026 figure comes from The Next Web.
- January 2023: $2 million pre-seed, led by Credo Ventures.
- June 2023: $19 million Series A, co-led by Andreessen Horowitz, Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross.
- January 2024: $80 million Series B at a $1.1 billion valuation.
- January 2025: $180 million Series C at $3.3 billion.
- 4 February 2026: $500 million Series D led by Sequoia Capital at $11 billion. ElevenLabs puts total funding at $781 million across five rounds.
On 30 September 2026 ElevenLabs announced a tender offer of about $300 million, led by Wellington Management and T. Rowe Price, at a $22 billion valuation, The Next Web reports. Shares were sold by employees and existing investors, so it was not a new funding round for the company. We do not publish net-worth estimates for the founders, because no reliable public figures exist.
Where ElevenLabs is based
Sources describe London as the headquarters. In its Series D post, ElevenLabs lists offices in London, New York, San Francisco, Warsaw, Dublin, Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore, Bengaluru, Sydney, São Paulo, Berlin, Paris and Mexico City. Wikipedia notes the company is legally incorporated in the US.
More on European founders
For other profiles, see our Founders section, including Lovable's founders Anton Osika and Fabian Hedin. Wider coverage of the sector sits under AI and Startups.
Frequently asked questions
Who founded ElevenLabs?
Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dąbkowski founded it in 2022. Staniszewski is CEO and Dąbkowski is CTO.
Are the ElevenLabs founders Polish?
Yes. Both were raised in Poland and met at school in Warsaw.
How old are the ElevenLabs founders?
Forbes Poland reports birth years of 1995 (Staniszewski) and 1994 (Dąbkowski). The company has not confirmed them.
What is ElevenLabs worth?
The company announced an $11 billion valuation on 4 February 2026. A tender offer announced on 30 September 2026 valued it at $22 billion, according to The Next Web.
