Neocortex has been granted ElevenLabs Startup Grant

We're excited to announce that Neocortex has been selected for the ElevenLabs Startup Grant, a prestigious program designed to give early-stage innovators free access to world-class AI voice tools.

At Neocortex, our mission is to empower game developers with conversational AI that brings NPCs (non-playable characters) to life. Now, with ElevenLabs' support in our corner, we're taking NPC voice intelligence to the next level, infusing emotional depth, expressive tone shifts, and immersive audio interactions with ease and flexibility.

What ElevenLabs Grant Means for Neocortex

Thanks to the ElevenLabs Startup Grants, we've received an incredible 12 months of complimentary access to one of the most advanced voice-AI platforms available, featuring 33 million characters' worth of effortlessly generated audio, equivalent to over 680 hours of rich, conversational speech.

This generous credit not only fuels our development but also removes the major barrier of audio content generation costs. It lets us experiment, iterate, and bring expressive NPC voices into reality without worrying about per-character billing or infrastructure constraints.

Unlocking NPC Emotion and Immersion

With ElevenLabs' voice AI capabilities, Neocortex can explore:

• Expressive emotional tonality will help our NPCs will be able to sound happy, worried, sarcastic, or thoughtful, reacting fluidly to in-game situations.
• Voice cloning and personalization, allowing characters to have distinctive speech styles consistent across dialogue and scenes.
• Dynamic in-game audio, enabling characters to respond with real-time voice, varying tone and pace based on player interaction.

This support accelerates our ability to deliver richly immersive, audio-first NPCs that feel personally reactive, dramatically raising the bar for narrative engagement in games.

Powering Real-Time, Human-Like Voice AI

ElevenLabs isn't just another text-to-speech tool, it's built for conversational, real-time AI voice experiences. With high concurrency thresholds, advanced support, and API features, the platform lets us deliver NPCs who speak naturally and respond contextually.

From natural turn-taking to multilingual expressive speech, the ElevenLabs grant opens a pathway for us to prototype and refine advanced voice scenarios, without the usual development friction.

Looking Ahead: Voice-Powered Experiences with Neocortex

With the ElevenLabs Startup Grant behind us, we're increasingly confident in delivering next-gen voice tools to game developers everywhere. Our roadmap includes:

• Deepening emotional response modeling for NPCs.
• Seamless integration of voice cloning options for character identity.
• Real-time conversational interaction built into game engines.

We're proud to be part of the AI-powered startup community supported by ElevenLabs, and we can't wait to show what lifelike, emotionally rich NPC voices can do for immersive gameplay.