ElevenLabs Hires CFO, Eyes 2028 IPO

While all eyes are on Anthropic’s forthcoming IPO prospectus, set to drop in the coming weeks, other fast-growing AI startups are laying the groundwork for their own public offerings.

The latest is AI voice startup ElevenLabs, which has hired a chief financial officer as it eyes a possible IPO in 2028.

The London-based startup has tapped Ethan Tandowsky, former CFO of the $32 billion Dutch fintech firm Adyen, according to someone with direct knowledge of the hire. Tandowsky had been Adyen’s CFO since 2023, and previously held other finance posts at the company throughout its 2018 public offering. (Shares of Amsterdam-listed Adyen are up more than 80% since its IPO but has lost more than half its value since its pandemic-height.) 

As a refresher, ElevenLabs trains its own voice models, or AI specifically meant to generate speech from text, or vice versa. Founded in 2022 by Polish duo Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dąbkowski, the company’s earliest customers were mostly individuals using its models to create voice-overs for YouTube videos.