ElevenLabs just doubled its valuation to $22 billion — in five months. The London-based voice AI startup is exploring a secondary share sale that would let employees cash out at roughly $22B, up from $11B in February. The tender could close by September. Here's what caught my attention: → Founded in 2022, now serving Cisco, Meta, Salesforce, The New Yorker, The Washington Post → $330M+ ARR at end of 2025 — among the fastest-growing private AI companies → Went from $1.1B → $11B → $22B in ~2 years. That's a 20x jump. Secondary sales like this are becoming the norm in AI. Employees get liquidity without waiting for IPO. Companies retain talent in a brutal hiring market. Investors get access to proven revenue without the IPO premium. But the real signal? Voice AI is no longer a novelty. It's infrastructure. When Meta, Salesforce, and major publishers all embed your tech into their products, you're not a startup anymore. You're a platform layer. The $22B number also tells us something about private market appetite. Public markets may be wobbly, but the best AI companies are still commanding premium valuations — and finding buyers. My take: ElevenLabs won't be the last. We're going to see a wave of secondary sales and tender offers from AI startups with $100M+ ARR. The IPO window is narrow. Secondaries are the exit path of 2026. Link in first comment 👇 — Robbie Jeo