ElevenLabs CEO Mati Staniszewski argues against slowing AI deployment across the board: hold back technology that is unsafe, but proceed when it has been adequately tested. Separately, The Economic Times reports that Prosus has discussed potential investments in Indian fintech firms Kiwi and Oolka. Those talks are not confirmed completed investments.
What the ElevenLabs CEO said about slowing AI
Speaking at an ElevenLabs event in Bengaluru on October 6, 2026, cofounder and CEO Mati Staniszewski said AI deployment should depend on safety, not an industry-wide pause. His position was conditional: slow deployment when technology is unsafe, and move ahead when it has been adequately tested.
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In comments to The Economic Times, Staniszewski said, “There is increasing collaboration across the industry in the space to make sure that people work together to assess this risk,” and added, “But we need to balance the benefits for society and the risks.”
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Language expansion
Staniszewski described India as ElevenLabs’ second-largest market and said it was growing rapidly. He called it “a voice-first country,” pointing to high usage, early adoption and new use cases.
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The Economic Times reported that ElevenLabs planned to expand its voice AI to all 22 officially recognised Indian languages “in the coming months.” The same report said the then-new Eleven V4 model supported 14 Indian languages at the time. The 22-language figure was a plan, not confirmation that all 22 were available. ElevenLabs’ current product pages describe Eleven v4 as supporting more than 90 languages overall; that overall figure does not establish current coverage of all 22 Indian languages.
Enterprise agents
The company is also promoting ElevenAgents for enterprise use. ElevenLabs describes it as a platform for creating, deploying and monitoring conversational AI agents across more than 90 languages, with enterprise security and controls. Its India page also markets enterprise voice AI, including agents for financial services. These are vendor descriptions, not independent evaluations of performance.
ElevenLabs’ employee tender offer and valuation
ElevenLabs announced that it completed a $300 million employee tender offer at a company valuation of $22 billion. The company announcement confirms the offer and valuation. The Economic Times reported that the valuation had doubled in roughly eight months.
What Prosus is reportedly discussing in Indian fintech
The Economic Times reports two separate potential investments. Neither report establishes that a funding round has closed.
| Company | Reported stage | Reported financing |
|---|---|---|
| Kiwi | Exploratory investment discussions with Prosus | Seeking around $40 million, according to The Economic Times |
| Oolka | Advanced funding discussions involving Prosus and Bessemer Venture Partners | $40–50 million raise at a reported $200 million post-money valuation, according to The Economic Times |
Kiwi offers bank-issued RuPay credit cards and credit lines for UPI payments. The Oolka funding amount and valuation remain reported discussion terms, not confirmed transaction details.
The reports place the possible deals alongside Prosus’s existing India fintech exposure, historically anchored by PayU. The Economic Times says the investor has broadened direct investments into lending, housing finance and savings, naming Mintifi, Vastu Housing Finance and Navi, and reports talks with savings startup Bachatt.
Prosus’s HY2026 financial statements support the historical context that it had invested in Mintifi and Vastu. They do not verify the reported Kiwi or Oolka discussions, or the reported Navi and Bachatt developments.
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Quick Recap
What the reports do—and do not—establish
- Staniszewski’s comments amount to a case for safety-based deployment decisions, not an endorsement of an across-the-board AI slowdown.
- The 22-language figure is a reported future plan; the 14-language figure describes Eleven V4 coverage in The Economic Times report at that time.
- The Kiwi and Oolka figures are reported fundraising targets and discussion terms, not completed financing.
- The available reporting does not provide comparable operating, credit-risk or performance data for Kiwi and Oolka, so it does not support ranking one as the stronger investment opportunity.
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