ElevenLabs appoints Ashley Kramer from OpenAI as its inaugural chief revenue officer.
ElevenLabs has appointed Ashley Kramer, previously the vice president of enterprise sales at OpenAI, as its inaugural chief revenue officer, as over 50% of its revenue transitions to enterprise clients. The company's main product is subject to the synthetic content marking regulations of the AI Act, which grant existing systems until December 2, 2026, to comply.
Ashley Kramer is now ElevenLabs' first chief revenue officer, having joined from OpenAI where she managed enterprise sales, according to Bloomberg.
This shift is attributed to an increase in enterprise customer purchases. This year, over half of the company’s revenue came from enterprise clients, an increase from 40% last year, which CEO Mati Staniszewski described as an inflection point. Kramer has also been associated with GitLab, Oracle, and NASA.
The company is based in Europe, a fact that often goes unmentioned. It has two Polish founders, a headquarters in London, and a government that invested $11 million this year.
The scale of the company has become significant. In July, it reported exceeding $600 million in annualized revenue, with notable clients including Deutsche Telekom, Revolut, Meta, and Stripe.
The company's valuation has doubled in just seven months. TNW reported that negotiations for a tender offer are taking place at approximately $22 billion, compared to $11 billion in February.
Kramer's appointment is a noteworthy detail. Senior sales talent is transitioning from an American organization to a European firm, which is not the typical trend.
She joins just ahead of a European deadline. Article 50 of the AI Act mandates that providers of systems producing synthetic audio must label outputs in a machine-readable format. Existing systems have until December 2, 2026, to comply, and ElevenLabs' voice models were developed well before the rule took effect in August.
Deployers have their own obligations. Any individual using AI to produce a deepfake must disclose it, which includes projects like digitally recreating Stan Lee through voice cloning.
The exemptions related to disclosure are not as broad as they may seem. Artistic, creative, satirical, and fictional works require reduced disclosure rather than complete exemption, while assistive editing is excluded from the marking requirement.
The enterprise initiative comes with a reputation. A company sales leader informed candidates to anticipate 20x quotas and demanding hours, as reported by TNW.
Kramer indicates that her decision was made prior to the recent changes at OpenAI. In recent weeks, OpenAI's chief revenue officer, chief operating officer, and head of applications have all departed.
This scenario exemplifies the nature of the hire: a European firm is acquiring American enterprise sales expertise, just three months before its outputs must conform to a European legal marking requirement.
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