Mumbai-based venture capital firm Activate has acquired a strategic stake in voice AI company ElevenLabs, marking its first investment in a global growth-stage artificial intelligence startup. The move reflects rising investor confidence in voice AI technologies and highlights India’s growing importance in the global AI ecosystem.
ElevenLabs, headquartered in New York, is currently valued at approximately $11 billion and has emerged as one of the fastest-growing companies in the voice AI sector. The startup specializes in AI-powered speech generation, dubbing, conversational agents, and multilingual voice technologies. Reports indicate that India has become the company’s second-largest market globally by revenue, driven by strong adoption of voice AI applications across enterprises and developers.
Activate declined to disclose the size of its investment, stating that the deal was executed through a separate strategic vehicle backed by the firm’s limited partners and sponsors rather than its primary early-stage AI fund. The investment represents Activate’s first major global growth-stage AI bet since launching its $75 million AI-focused venture fund in 2025.
As part of the partnership, Activate will act as ElevenLabs’ on-ground venture partner in India. The collaboration aims to deepen ElevenLabs’ enterprise relationships in the country while also giving Indian startups and developers preferential access to the company’s voice AI infrastructure and tools. Industry experts believe this could accelerate the growth of voice-native AI applications across sectors including customer support, education, ecommerce, media, and regional-language technology platforms.
Activate cofounder Aakrit Vaish stated that voice is expected to become a foundational interface for AI adoption in India due to the country’s linguistic diversity and mobile-first digital ecosystem. The firm believes conversational and multilingual AI technologies will play a major role in how millions of users interact with digital services in the future. Earlier this year, Activate also announced a multi-year collaboration with Nvidia to support Indian AI startups through access to computing resources, developer tools, and technical training.
Founded in 2022 by former Google and Palantir executives Piotr Dąbkowski and Mati Staniszewski, ElevenLabs has experienced explosive growth in recent years. The company reportedly crossed $500 million in annual recurring revenue during the first four months of 2026 and continues expanding aggressively across enterprise AI, speech synthesis, AI dubbing, and conversational voice agents. Investors in the company include Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Nvidia, BlackRock, and ICONIQ Capital.
The investment underscores the rapidly growing global interest in voice artificial intelligence as businesses increasingly adopt conversational AI systems and multilingual automation tools. Analysts believe India could emerge as one of the largest markets for voice AI adoption due to its massive digital user base, regional language diversity, and expanding AI startup ecosystem.
