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News

ElevenLabs has announced its new investors after closing a $500 million Series D funding round. The voice AI startup welcomes BlackRock, Wellington, D.E. Shaw, and Schroders as institutional backers. Enterprise giants like NVIDIA and Santander joined the round through their corporate strategic venture arms. Hollywood stars Jamie Foxx, Eva Longoria, and Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk also added their names. For readers tracking AI investments, this round signals strong confidence in conversational AI platform growth.

Institutional backing reaches a new high

BlackRock and Wellington bring deep capital expertise to a fast-growing voice AI startup ecosystem. The company ended 2025 with $350 million in annual recurring revenue from enterprise clients. By April 2026, ElevenLabs had surpassed $500 million in annual recurring revenue across its product lines. Rob Mazzoni from Wellington Management said voice AI will become foundational for global business communication. His firm sees ElevenLabs leading the category as enterprises adopt human-like AI agents at scale.

Many enterprise clients now back the company financially through their corporate strategic investment arms. NVIDIA, Salesforce, KPN, and Deutsche Telekom rely on the platform for customer interactions daily. ElevenLabs has announced its new investors right after expanding deals with these enterprise customers. Deutsche Telekom uses the platform to power support agents and produce marketing videos for customers. The German telecom giant invested through T.Capital, its strategic investment arm, during the latest round. Karine Peters from T. Capital said voice carries the highest stakes in any customer interaction channel.

Why has ElevenLabs announced its new investors at this moment

You see strong momentum because enterprises now deploy enterprise AI agents across multiple business functions. Customer support, sales, hiring, and marketing operations all benefit from AI voice technology platforms. From my standpoint, this third Series D close shows institutional belief in conversational AI economics. The voice AI startup grew from $350 million ARR to over $500 million in four months. Such rapid growth attracts capital because enterprise contracts produce stable recurring income for the platform.

ElevenLabs has announced its new investors alongside a fresh push into retail and creative communities. Eva Longoria, an actor and producer, joined the round as part of a creative talent group. More than 30 actors, musicians, athletes, and entertainment executives invested for the first time. Longoria said her investment reflects support for a company building tools with creatives in mind. Matthew McConaughey, an existing investor, keeps backing the AI voice technology platform with new capital.

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What comes next for the voice AI startup

Robinhood Ventures opens retail access for everyday users to own a stake in the company. ElevenLabs has announced its new investors at a time when enterprise AI agents shape business communication. Your business benefits when AI sounds natural across phone calls, video content, and chat windows. The platform now serves 530 employees across more than 50 countries around the world. Mati Staniszewski, the co-founder, said systems sounding robotic will not gain widespread customer trust. Funding will support new tools combining image, video, and audio generation for marketing teams. Plans include voice agents handling email, chat, and live calls across many client industries. Your decision to back conversational AI platforms now will pay off as adoption grows. The company builds toward natural human-like communication for every business audience worldwide each day.

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ElevenLabs has announced its new investors including BlackRock, Jamie Foxx

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RICHARD MAXIMILIAN

CEO Of Dubai Capital

“Institutional engagement around stablecoins and tokenized assets shows digital assets is approaching everyday financial life and trust.”
– Tarik Erk, Regional Head of Binance

Central Bank of UAE develops e-KYC platform

ABU DHABI, 15th April, 2026 (WAM) — The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) announced the development of the nationwide unified Know Your Customer (eKYC) platform, following the signing of a technical partnership agreement with the global technology company Norbloc AB.

This strategic initiative constitutes a core pillar of the Financial Infrastructure Transformation (FIT) Programme, which aims to build an integrated financial ecosystem that enhances operational efficiency. It also reflects the CBUAE’s commitment to modernising regulatory frameworks and adopting advanced digital solutions.

The platform will address challenges arising from the duplication of customer due diligence processes, reduce compliance costs, and strengthen financial stability and competitiveness, further reinforcing the UAE’s leadership in the global digital financial landscape.

The signing ceremony was witnessed by Khaled Mohamed Balama, Governor of the CBUAE, and Ahmed Saeed Al Qamzi, Assistant Governor for Banking and Insurance Supervision at the CBUAE.

The agreement was signed by Saif Humaid Al Dhaheri, Assistant Governor for Banking Operations and Support Services at the CBUAE, and Astyanax Kanakakis, Chief Executive Officer of Norbloc AB, in the presence of senior officials from both sides.

The new platform will enhance the efficiency of “Know Your Customer” and “Know Your Business” (KYC/KYB) processes, as well as due diligence requirements through automated workflows and the integration of trusted data sources. This will strengthen compliance and ensure alignment with anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) frameworks.

Underpinned by a robust privacy by design technology, the platform enables secure data sharing strictly based on explicit customer consent, ensuring the highest standards of confidentiality, data protection, and trust across the financial system.

It introduces a unified national approach that supports both financial institutions and fintech companies, delivering a faster and more reliable digital onboarding experience for individuals and businesses, while substantially reducing turnaround times and operational costs.

This project represents a key milestone in the digital transformation of the UAE’s financial sector. Future phases will focus on expanding the platform’s capabilities and deepening its integration with relevant stakeholders, supporting the development of an advanced and sustainable digital financial ecosystem.

The initiative underscores the CBUAE’s commitment to leveraging advanced technologies to enhance governance, deliver customer-centric financial services, support ease of doing business, and further cement the UAE’s position as a hub for innovative digital regulatory infrastructure.

“The development of the e-KYC Platform represents a strategic transformation towards a more efficient and resilient financial ecosystem,” said Al Dhaheri. “Through this platform, we are enabling the sector to move away from resource-intensive traditional processes towards progressive digital models that accelerate access to financial services and reduce operational costs.”

He added that CBUAE aims to enhance efficiency and establish a financial environment characterised by transparency and the protection of customer privacy, in a way that reinforces the UAE’s competitiveness as a leading global financial centre.

Kanakakis stated, “By leveraging advanced technologies, we will enable financial institutions to access trusted and secure data in real time from multiple sources, enhancing operational efficiency while adhering to the highest international standards. It also empowers users with full control over the management of access to their data.”

BRIDGE Alliance announces November 28 as launch date for second edition of BRIDGE Summit on Yas Island for five days

ABU DHABI, 13th April, 2026 (WAM) — The BRIDGE Alliance announced that the second edition of the BRIDGE Summit will be held from 28th November to 2nd December 2026, relocating its venue to Yas Island in Abu Dhabi in partnership with Miral Group, with the summit extended to five days, Emirates News Agency mentioned today.

This was announced during the Board of Directors meeting of the BRIDGE Alliance, chaired by Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Butti Al Hamed. The Board reviewed the outcomes of the first edition and the position it established for the summit as the largest global platform bringing together leaders and elite figures from the media, content, cultural, and creative industries across all their components, alongside decision-makers and investors, within a unified platform that enables more effective and integrated opportunities and partnerships worldwide.

The meeting addressed a wide range of topics related to planning for the BRIDGE 2026 Summit, which will witness a qualitative transformation in its structure and mechanisms. This includes transitioning from an annual event model to a year-round sustainable platform based on specialised tracks that address challenges facing the media sector, expanding partnerships, and launching practical initiatives that support responsible innovation—thereby establishing BRIDGE as a global reference for credibility and professional collaboration.

Abdullah Al Hamed affirmed, during his speech at the alliance’s third meeting, that the upcoming BRIDGE 2026 Summit will not be a mere continuation of previous editions, but rather a qualitative leap on three levels. The summit will move to Yas Island, offering a larger space that reflects the expansion of its agenda and ambitions; it will extend to five days instead of three, allowing innovation more time to flourish; and its content will focus on the creative economy, information integrity, and empowering future generations to shape a media landscape that not only conveys news but creates opportunities.

He emphasised that the goal is to transition from momentum to institutionalisation, from dialogue to execution, and from gathering voices to unifying efforts. He noted that BRIDGE serves as a bridge that brings together geopolitical contrasts at one table and unifies global ambitions under one roof.

The Chairman of the Alliance highlighted that the next phase of BRIDGE represents a decisive shift from the logic of an event to that of a system, and from seasonal activity to a long-term institutional project that redefines the role of media within the equation of development, economy, and knowledge.

For his part, Dr. Jamal Al Kaabi, Vice Chairman of the BRIDGE Alliance, affirmed that the new updates to the BRIDGE Summit reflect the UAE’s transition from supporting the media, content, and entertainment economy to engineering its operational platforms. He noted that BRIDGE represents one of the most significant practical models in this sector, and that the second edition will focus on deepening the quality of professional engagement through structured mechanisms that connect investors, producers, media and technology platforms, content creators, and innovators within a unified platform that facilitates the development of business models, co-production, and expanded access to regional and global markets.

The meeting witnessed in-depth discussions among alliance members, who contributed rich ideas and perspectives, reflecting a shared understanding that the second edition of the BRIDGE Summit carries greater responsibility than the first. The focus is no longer on proving the concept, but on amplifying its impact and transforming the momentum generated by the first edition into a deeply rooted institutional path capable of withstanding the test of time.

Discussions emphasised the importance of ensuring that the upcoming summit serves as a platform for decision-making, not merely dialogue, and that it delivers measurable and actionable outcomes reflecting the true weight of the institutions under the alliance.

This analysis reflects publicly available data as of early May 2026. Markets move; these break. Re-underwrite quarterly. 1. MARKET CONTEXT Macro setup.

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