ElevenLabs, a London-based AI voice company, plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in India as it expands voice artificial intelligence development and deployment across the country. CEO Mati Staniszewski confirmed the investment, saying the company will allocate a double-digit percentage of the nearly US$1 billion it has raised to the region. The move aligns with broader global AI momentum in India, where OpenAI, Anthropic, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have deepened their commitments.
Investment Focus and Local Expansion
Staniszewski said the funding will support model development, local teams, and work on Indian languages. The company, which was founded in 2022 and is backed by Nvidia, Wellington, T. Rowe Price, Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed, EQT, and Goldman Sachs, doubled its valuation to US$22 billion in September. ElevenLabs is also open to acquisitions in India, though it declined to name potential targets.
Voice AI Adoption and Enterprise Traction
ElevenLabs' latest model supports 14 Indian languages, reflecting the company's focus on a linguistically diverse market. It has worked with 250 enterprises in the region and records 100 million annual AI agent conversations in Indian languages, according to Karthik Rajaram, general manager and country leader for India. Customers include edtech company Physicswallah, electrical equipment maker Havells, and fintech Razorpay.
India as a Testing Ground for Voice AI
Staniszewski said use cases emerging in India could shape adoption in other markets, particularly because the country's multiple languages and widespread voice-based interactions create a demanding environment. He noted that voice could become the primary interface between people and AI. ElevenLabs wants to serve as the interaction layer for the agentic economy, providing integrations, deployment, monitoring, and an ecosystem beyond underlying models.
Reshaping Customer Support and BPO Work
Staniszewski said conversational AI is approaching human-level performance in some applications and could pass the Turing test in the near term. AI is already comparable with humans in basic level-one customer support, with broader improvements expected over the next six to 12 months. As a result, India's business process outsourcing industry may shift from repetitive, scripted calls toward level-two and level-three roles that require more complex judgment and emotional understanding.
Human and AI Collaboration in Customer Service
Staniszewski said AI agents and human employees will increasingly work together in customer support environments. Humans will supervise calls, intervene when necessary, and manage cases that require greater judgment. ElevenLabs is already using this model for inbound sales qualification and is working with business process outsourcing companies on similar applications.
Government Access, Safety, and AI Disclosure
Beyond enterprise adoption, ElevenLabs will partner with the southern state of Karnataka to use voice AI to make government services more accessible and to support voice restoration for people without the ability to speak. On disclosure, Staniszewski said companies should currently inform customers when they are speaking to an AI agent, although the requirement may lessen as users become more accustomed to the technology. He also backed safeguards and cross-industry checks while rejecting a blanket slowdown of AI development.
ElevenLabs views India as both a large commercial opportunity and a testing ground for voice AI applications that could influence adoption in other markets. With voice expected to become a primary interface between people and AI, the company aims to operate as the interaction layer for the agentic economy. Its expanding enterprise relationships, local language capabilities, and Karnataka partnership position it to capture demand across customer support, sales, and government services.
Source: CNBC-TV18