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ElevenLabs hired an IPO CFO the day before the IPO story

The Information says ElevenLabs is preparing a 2028 listing; the company had already announced Adyen's former CFO and a new revenue chief inside a week.

Published by TheSampleSpaceReviewed by the editor · Sep 9, 2026
In briefElevenLabs is laying the groundwork for a 2028 IPO after an $11bn valuation, with more than half of sales from large companies1Ethan Tandowsky joined ElevenLabs as CFO on 8 September, after being CFO of Adyen, joining in 2016 and helping take it public in 20182Large organisations account for 55% of ElevenLabs revenue, up from 40% a year earlier; the company has 800 people and has launched 10 million conversational agents3

ElevenLabs is laying the groundwork for a 2028 initial public offering, The Information reported on 9 September, five months after a $500m Series D valued the audio AI company at $11bn and with more than half its sales now coming from large enterprises.

The Information@theinformation

ElevenLabs is laying the groundwork for a 2028 IPO after reaching an $11 billion valuation earlier this year.

More than half of its sales now come from large companies, as it expands beyond voice generation into AI customer-service agents.

Full story: t.co/PCSqvyLHYV

on X · 5.2K views · captured Sep 10, 2026

You did not need the scoop. The company published the tell itself, the day before.

On 8 September ElevenLabs announced that Ethan Tandowsky had joined as chief financial officer. Tandowsky was most recently CFO of Adyen. He joined its finance team in 2016, helped take the company public in 2018, and became CFO in 2023. Six days earlier the company had announced Ashley Kramer as chief revenue officer. A CFO who has run a listing and a CRO in the same fortnight is not a coincidence. Nobody hires an ex-Adyen finance chief to tidy the monthly close.

Most of the numbers behind that timing are already public, because ElevenLabs published them itself. The company ended 2025 at $350m of annual recurring revenue and passed $500m in the first four months of 2026. Large organisations are now 55% of revenue, up from 40% a year ago. There are 800 staff and, by the company's count, 10 million conversational agents launched.

ElevenLabs ARR, $m
Dec 2025Apr 2026500350

At $11bn against roughly $500m of ARR, February's round priced the company near 22 times revenue. Which is why 2028 and not 2027. Grow into it and the listing is easy. Go early and you ask public investors to pay a private price.

Our read is that the IPO date is set by the revenue mix, not the technology. Public markets pay a durable multiple for enterprise contracts and a fickle one for creator subscriptions, and 55% is the number that decides which company ElevenLabs is when it files. We would expect large-enterprise revenue above 70% by the time an S-1 appears. If it files with the mix still near half, we read the CFO hire wrong.

Which makes the creator business the awkward asset (the part of the company most people love and the part an analyst will ask about last). ElevenLabs built a marketplace for voice artists to earn from their own IP, and it has spent real effort on it. But a company steering toward a 2028 listing allocates engineers and gross margin to the thing analysts will underwrite, and customer service agents for Deutsche Telekom and Revolut underwrite better than a voice library.

The strongest argument against all this is that the reporting says groundwork, not filing, and groundwork is cheap. Companies hire public-company CFOs and never list. Adyen experience is also just useful at 800 people and growing. Fair. But watch what usually follows. An audit committee, a second independent director, segment reporting that suddenly looks like a filing (boring steps, and they leak less than a banker meeting).

Two questions we would want answered before anyone prices this. How much of that $500m is usage-based rather than committed, and what happens to it when enterprises post-train their own voice models the way Harvey did with law?

The date to hold onto is 2028. Far enough away that everything here could change, which is exactly why the hires matter more than the target.

Sources

01
ElevenLabs is laying the groundwork for a 2028 IPO after an $11bn valuation, with more than half of sales from large companies“ElevenLabs is laying the groundwork for a 2028 IPO after reaching an $11 billion valuation earlier this year. More than half of its sales now come from large companies, as it expands beyond voice generation into AI customer-service agents.” — x.com · primary · Sep 10
02
Ethan Tandowsky joined ElevenLabs as CFO on 8 September, after being CFO of Adyen, joining in 2016 and helping take it public in 2018“Ethan was most recently CFO of Adyen, the payments company that provides critical infrastructure to many of the world's largest enterprises. He joined Adyen's finance team in 2016, and helped take the company public in 2018, before…” — elevenlabs.io · primary · Sep 10
03
Large organisations account for 55% of ElevenLabs revenue, up from 40% a year earlier; the company has 800 people and has launched 10 million conversational agents“We are now a global team of 800 people, serving millions of developers, creators, and businesses. Our industry-leading voice and audio AI models support over 90 languages, and we have launched 10 million conversational agents across…” — elevenlabs.io · primary · Sep 10
Show all 7 sources
04
Ashley Kramer was announced as chief revenue officer on 2 September“Ashley Kramer joins ElevenLabs as Chief Revenue Officer Category Company Date Sep 2, 2026” — elevenlabs.io · primary · Sep 10
05
The February Series D of $500m was led by Sequoia and valued ElevenLabs at $11bn, bringing total funding to $781m“The round is led by Sequoia Capital with Andrew Reed joining the board... This latest funding values ElevenLabs at $11 billion, more than tripling its valuation from one year prior, and brings total funding to $781 million across five…” — elevenlabs.io · primary · Sep 10
06
ElevenLabs ended 2025 at $350m ARR and passed $500m ARR in the first four months of 2026“We ended 2025 with $350 million in ARR, and in the first four months of 2026, we have already surpassed $500 million ARR. This growth is driven by enterprises deploying voice agents across their businesses, from customer support and…” — elevenlabs.io · primary · Sep 10
07
ElevenLabs runs a marketplace for voice creators and counts Deutsche Telekom and Revolut among enterprise users“Organizations including Deutsche Telekom, Square, the Ukrainian Government, and Revolut use ElevenAgents for customer support, conversational commerce, citizen engagement, internal training, and inbound sales.” — elevenlabs.io · primary · Sep 10
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