ElevenLabs hires former Adyen CFO as it eyes 2028 IPO

ElevenLabs, the AI voice technology startup valued at $11 billion, has appointed Ethan Tandowsky as its new chief financial officer, the company announced on Tuesday. The hire from Dutch payments giant Adyen positions the London-based company to pursue a potential initial public offering as early as 2028.elevenlabs+1

A CFO Built for IPOs

Tandowsky spent nearly a decade at Adyen, joining in 2016 and rising to CFO in 2023. During his tenure, he helped guide Adyen through its 2018 IPO on the Amsterdam exchange, oversaw global finance operations as the company grew from 400 to 5,000 employees, and saw revenue increase 20-fold. He stepped down from Adyen effective August 31 to pursue what the company described at the time as "an opportunity outside of fintech".adyen+1

Reuters Thomson Reuters Corporation ↘ 6.50% reported in May that Adyen's supervisory board was caught off guard by the departure. The destination is now clear.reuters

"ElevenLabs has the research depth and customer demand to meaningfully improve how people interact day-to-day with AI," Tandowsky said in a statement on the company's blog. "My focus is to drive investment and build the financial foundation that allows the company to seize the significant opportunity ahead."elevenlabs

Path to Public Markets

The CFO appointment is the latest step in ElevenLabs' march toward a listing. CEO Mati Staniszewski told Bloomberg in March that the company was "building towards an IPO" and aimed to be ready within two to three years, roughly 2028 or 2029. Executives have also discussed the possibility of a dual listing that could include the Warsaw Stock Exchange.newsbytesapp+1

ElevenLabs raised a $500 million Series D in February 2026 led by Sequoia, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, ICONIQ, Lightspeed, and Nvidia ↘ 2.01%, tripling its valuation to $11 billion. The Information reported that Tandowsky's hire was made as the company eyes a possible 2028 IPO, joining a growing wave of AI startups preparing for public markets.curvedtrading+2

Scaling Global Operations

Founded in 2022 by Staniszewski and Piotr Dabkowski, ElevenLabs specializes in text-to-speech, voice cloning, and conversational AI agents. Its annual recurring revenue has surpassed $500 million, and its tools are used by 41 percent of Fortune 500 companies, according to the company. With Tandowsky now steering finances, the startup has secured a seasoned operator who has navigated the full arc from private growth to public-company discipline — exactly the profile a pre-IPO company seeks.cryptobriefing