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ElevenLabs CEO on AI slowdown; Prosus dials up fintech bets
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Happy Wednesday! ElevenLabs CEO Mati Staniszewski weighs in on the AI slowdown debate. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.
Also in the letter:
■ Garuda Aerospace’s pre-IPO round
■ ServiceNow exec on India market
■ Mamaearth, Nykaa on Q2
Mati Staniszewski, cofounder and CEO, ElevenLabs. (Photo by N Narasimha Murthy)
Voice AI pioneer ElevenLabs does not support an industry-wide slowdown in AI development, cofounder and CEO Mati Staniszewski told ET in an interview. He said companies should slow deployment where technology is found to be “unsafe,” but move ahead where it has been “adequately tested.”
Quote, unquote: “There is increasing collaboration across the industry in the space to make sure that people work together to assess this risk,” he said when asked about the increasing calls to pace AI. “But we need to balance the benefits for society and the risks,” the 31-year-old Staniszewski said on the sidelines of ElevenLabs’ Bengaluru event on October 6.
His comments come amid growing calls to pace AI development, including from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.
India market: The London-headquartered firm completed a $300 million employee tender offer last week, doubling its valuation to $22 billion in roughly eight months. India remains its second-biggest market and is growing rapidly.
“I think... it’s a voice-first country… When we started the company, the highest usage, the highest pickup, the highest set of new use cases came from India,” Staniszewski said.
Expanding market: He also said ElevenLabs plans to expand its AI voice technology to all 22 officially recognised Indian languages in the coming months. The company currently supports 14 Indian languages on its latest text-to-speech (TTS) model, Eleven V4, which was launched last week.
Beyond voice: The company is pushing its Eleven Agents platform for enterprise use cases. The platform allows businesses to create, deploy, and monitor conversational AI agents across more than 90 languages, with enterprise security and controls.
Amsterdam-listed technology investor Prosus is in talks to invest in fintech startups Kiwi and Oolka, stepping up direct bets on Indian financial services companies.
Driving the news: Kiwi is currently looking to raise around $40 million, as ET reported last week. Prosus has since held exploratory discussions to invest in the credit-on-UPI startup, though the talks are at an early stage.
Separately, AI-led credit management startup Oolka is in advanced discussions with Prosus and Bessemer Venture Partners to raise $40-50 million at a $200-million post-money valuation.
The bigger picture: Prosus’ India fintech exposure had long been anchored by PayU, but it has widened direct investments across lending, housing finance and savings. It invested in Mintifi and Vastu Housing Finance in 2024, announced a $100-million investment in Navi this August, and is also in talks to back savings startup Bachatt.
 started out with drones for industrial and agricultural use, then took up defence projects.jpg "Garuda Aerospace founder Agnishwar Jayaprakash (in pic) started out with drones for industrial and agricultural use, then took up defence projects")
Agnishwar Jayaprakash, founder and CEO, Garuda Aerospace
Chennai-based drone technology company Garuda Aerospace has raised about $10 million in a pre-IPO funding round at a $320 million pre-money valuation.
The round was led by the Motherson family office and Dubai-based Aditum Investment Group.
IPO details: Garuda is targeting a public listing in Q1 2027. The company filed the draft IPO papers through the confidential route in April and received Sebi’s observations on August 5, allowing it to proceed.
Revenue from operations rose 67% to Rs 206 crore in FY26 from Rs 123 crore in FY25, while net profit increased 41% to Rs 26 crore from Rs 18 crore, per its FY26 annual report.
Amit Zavery, chief product and operating officer, ServiceNow
India is on track to become the $140-billion ServiceNow’s fastest-growing market in Asia, global COO and chief product officer Amit Zavery told us.
India’s growing role: The enterprise software company plans to double its India workforce and is investing aggressively to expand sales, product and engineering teams.
ServiceNow employs 6,000 people in India, nearly a fifth of its global workforce, with India handling 45% of the company’s global delivery work.
Verbatim: “My expectation is India will be one of the largest Asia growth drivers for us. It’s already happening, and I wouldn’t be surprised to be number one in Asia for us,” Zavery said.
Mamaearth, Nykaa’s Q2 looking up: The parent companies of leading beauty and personal care (BPC) brands Mamaearth and Nykaa have projected strong growth momentum for the second quarter of FY27.
Quanfluence raises funds: Bengaluru-based deeptech startup Quanfluence has raised $10 million in a funding round led by Chiratae Ventures, as it looks to build a full-stack photonic quantum computer that combines photonic chips, control electronics and software into a single system.
■ Muse creates detailed profiles of all your friends and family (Wired)
■ Not just AI, China is building technologies that challenge US dominance (Rest of World)
■ Insurance claims to test Altman and Amodei liability for ‘rogue’ AI (FT)
Also in the letter:
■ Garuda Aerospace’s pre-IPO round
■ ServiceNow exec on India market
■ Mamaearth, Nykaa on Q2
No need to slow AI deployment if technology clears safety test: ElevenLabs CEO
Voice AI pioneer ElevenLabs does not support an industry-wide slowdown in AI development, cofounder and CEO Mati Staniszewski told ET in an interview. He said companies should slow deployment where technology is found to be “unsafe,” but move ahead where it has been “adequately tested.”
Quote, unquote: “There is increasing collaboration across the industry in the space to make sure that people work together to assess this risk,” he said when asked about the increasing calls to pace AI. “But we need to balance the benefits for society and the risks,” the 31-year-old Staniszewski said on the sidelines of ElevenLabs’ Bengaluru event on October 6.
His comments come amid growing calls to pace AI development, including from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.
India market: The London-headquartered firm completed a $300 million employee tender offer last week, doubling its valuation to $22 billion in roughly eight months. India remains its second-biggest market and is growing rapidly.
“I think... it’s a voice-first country… When we started the company, the highest usage, the highest pickup, the highest set of new use cases came from India,” Staniszewski said.
Expanding market: He also said ElevenLabs plans to expand its AI voice technology to all 22 officially recognised Indian languages in the coming months. The company currently supports 14 Indian languages on its latest text-to-speech (TTS) model, Eleven V4, which was launched last week.
Beyond voice: The company is pushing its Eleven Agents platform for enterprise use cases. The platform allows businesses to create, deploy, and monitor conversational AI agents across more than 90 languages, with enterprise security and controls.
Prosus steps up India fintech bets with Kiwi, Oolka funding talks
Amsterdam-listed technology investor Prosus is in talks to invest in fintech startups Kiwi and Oolka, stepping up direct bets on Indian financial services companies.
Driving the news: Kiwi is currently looking to raise around $40 million, as ET reported last week. Prosus has since held exploratory discussions to invest in the credit-on-UPI startup, though the talks are at an early stage.
Separately, AI-led credit management startup Oolka is in advanced discussions with Prosus and Bessemer Venture Partners to raise $40-50 million at a $200-million post-money valuation.
The bigger picture: Prosus’ India fintech exposure had long been anchored by PayU, but it has widened direct investments across lending, housing finance and savings. It invested in Mintifi and Vastu Housing Finance in 2024, announced a $100-million investment in Navi this August, and is also in talks to back savings startup Bachatt.
Garuda Aerospace raises $10 million at $320 million valuation ahead of IPO
Chennai-based drone technology company Garuda Aerospace has raised about $10 million in a pre-IPO funding round at a $320 million pre-money valuation.
The round was led by the Motherson family office and Dubai-based Aditum Investment Group.
IPO details: Garuda is targeting a public listing in Q1 2027. The company filed the draft IPO papers through the confidential route in April and received Sebi’s observations on August 5, allowing it to proceed.
- The proposed IPO is expected to be around Rs 1,000 crore, comprising a fresh issue of up to Rs 750 crore and an offer-for-sale component of around Rs 250 crore.
- SBI Capital Markets, Axis Capital, ICICI Securities and IIFL Capital Services are expected to be among the book-running lead managers.
- Garuda had earlier targeted a valuation of Rs 4,000–5,000 crore for the IPO.
Revenue from operations rose 67% to Rs 206 crore in FY26 from Rs 123 crore in FY25, while net profit increased 41% to Rs 26 crore from Rs 18 crore, per its FY26 annual report.
India set to be ServiceNow's fastest-growing market in Asia
India is on track to become the $140-billion ServiceNow’s fastest-growing market in Asia, global COO and chief product officer Amit Zavery told us.
India’s growing role: The enterprise software company plans to double its India workforce and is investing aggressively to expand sales, product and engineering teams.
ServiceNow employs 6,000 people in India, nearly a fifth of its global workforce, with India handling 45% of the company’s global delivery work.
Verbatim: “My expectation is India will be one of the largest Asia growth drivers for us. It’s already happening, and I wouldn’t be surprised to be number one in Asia for us,” Zavery said.
Other Top Stories By Our Reporters
Mamaearth, Nykaa’s Q2 looking up: The parent companies of leading beauty and personal care (BPC) brands Mamaearth and Nykaa have projected strong growth momentum for the second quarter of FY27.
Quanfluence raises funds: Bengaluru-based deeptech startup Quanfluence has raised $10 million in a funding round led by Chiratae Ventures, as it looks to build a full-stack photonic quantum computer that combines photonic chips, control electronics and software into a single system.
Global Picks We Are Reading
■ Muse creates detailed profiles of all your friends and family (Wired)
■ Not just AI, China is building technologies that challenge US dominance (Rest of World)
■ Insurance claims to test Altman and Amodei liability for ‘rogue’ AI (FT)
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