London-based AI company ElevenLabs has doubled its valuation to about £16.6bn as the voice technology business prepares a major expansion of its physical headquarters in the capital. The new valuation follows an employee tender offer worth about £226m disclosed on 30 September, while ElevenLabs has separately committed to moving into a new London headquarters three times the size of its existing office and doubling its UK headcount to 200 people during 2026. The two developments are commercially connected through the company's rapid growth, but today's tender offer is not itself funding for an office construction project.
The Royal Exchange and City of London office skyline at Bank Junction. Rapid growth among AI companies is increasing demand for office space across central London. Image: London Construction Magazine.
ElevenLabs valuation doubles to £16.6bn
Reuters reported on 30 September that the employee tender offer, equivalent to about £226m, was led by Wellington Management and T. Rowe Price and values ElevenLabs at approximately £16.6bn, double the roughly £8.3bn valuation achieved through its Series D funding round earlier this year. The transaction provides liquidity for employees and existing shareholders rather than raising another £226m of new capital for ElevenLabs. That distinction matters from a construction and property perspective: the tender should not be treated as a newly announced development budget or as evidence that a construction contract has been awarded. The physical London expansion was announced separately in June. In its UK expansion announcement, ElevenLabs said it would move into a new London headquarters three times the size of its existing office and double its UK workforce to 200 people across research, engineering, sales and other teams.
New London headquarters will triple existing footprint
ElevenLabs has not publicly disclosed the floor area of the new headquarters, the landlord, lease value, property adviser, architect, fit-out contractor or construction value. No main construction or fit-out contract should therefore be inferred from the company's headcount and office expansion announcement. The company first established its European headquarters on Wardour Street in Soho in 2024. ElevenLabs said at the time that the office would initially accommodate around 20 London employees, with plans to grow to 40 within six months and more than 100 in subsequent years. The premises also included an incubator-style area providing workspace for London startups and creatives working with AI audio technology.
Corporate filings provide an additional location detail, but they do not conclusively identify the new three-times-larger headquarters announced for 2026. Companies House records show that Eleven Labs Ltd changed its registered office on 8 October 2025 from Floor 5, 119 Wardour Street to Floor 4, 33 Broadwick Street, London W1F 0DQ. A registered-office change is not, by itself, evidence that the Broadwick Street floor is the larger headquarters referenced in the June 2026 announcement. ElevenLabs' own expansion statement does not give the new headquarters address, and London Construction Magazine has not identified a first-party announcement naming the landlord, floor area or delivery team. Until that information is confirmed, the Broadwick Street filing and the new HQ commitment should be treated as separate verified facts rather than automatically combined.
AI companies are taking more London office space
The expansion comes during a sharp increase in London office demand from AI occupiers. CBRE recorded 705,371 sq ft of AI-related Central London office take-up in the first half of 2026, more than four times the 165,819 sq ft recorded during the same period in 2025 and more than double the whole of last year. Major transactions during the second quarter included Anthropic taking 158,500 sq ft at One Triton Square and OpenAI committing to 95,500 sq ft at Jahn Court in Regent Quarter. London Construction Magazine has previously examined the construction implications of OpenAI's London office expansion, including the distinction between occupier commitments and the actual delivery of fit-out and building works.
The wider office statistics also require care. CBRE said second-hand accommodation accounted for 64% of Central London take-up in the second quarter, with newly completed space representing 29% and pre-lets only 7%. Rising AI leasing demand therefore does not translate directly into the same volume of new-build construction starts. For contractors, designers and commercial fit-out specialists, the more immediate opportunity can sit inside existing buildings: Cat B fit-out, services upgrades, power and data infrastructure, acoustic treatment, security, collaboration space and the reconfiguration of floorplates for fast-growing occupiers. LCM's review of the London construction market during the first half of 2026 found that refurbishment accounted for 66% of Central London office start volume, while new-build activity had fallen sharply.
Office demand is only one part of the AI construction market
The physical effect of AI growth extends beyond headquarters space, although no direct ElevenLabs data-centre construction project has been publicly confirmed. Higher computing demand is already increasing pressure on power availability, fibre networks and data-centre capacity around London and the wider South East. CBRE forecasts AI-led companies could account for as much as 4m sq ft of cumulative Central London office take-up by 2033. At infrastructure level, the same growth cycle is increasing demand for power-intensive digital facilities, an area examined in LCM's London data-centre and critical infrastructure market report.
ElevenLabs therefore provides a useful example of how rapidly scaling AI businesses can move from relatively small flexible offices into larger physical headquarters requirements. What is not yet public is equally important: the exact size and address of its new London HQ, the property agreement behind it and any construction or fit-out appointments.
What happens next
ElevenLabs has confirmed the direction of travel: a London headquarters three times larger than its previous office and a UK workforce targeted to reach 200 people. The next property milestone will be confirmation of where that expanded headquarters is located and how it is being delivered. Until the company, landlord or project team publishes those details, no landlord, contractor, fit-out value or construction programme can be reliably assigned to the expansion.
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Expert Verification & Authorship: Mihai Chelmus Founder & Editor, London Construction Magazine | Construction Testing & Investigation Specialist |