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SoundHound

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American music and speech recognition company Not to be confused with SoundCloud.

SoundHound AI, Inc.
Headquarters in Santa Clara
Company typePublic
Traded asNasdaq: SOUN
Industry
FoundedSeptember 2005; 19 years ago (2005-09)
Founder
  • Keyvan Mohajer
  • Majid Emami
  • James Hom
HeadquartersSanta Clara, California, United States
Key peopleKeyvan Mohajer (CEO)
Mike Zagorsek (COO)
Tim Stonehocker (CTO)
Nitesh Sharan (CFO)
Products
  • SoundHound Chat AI
  • Smart Answering
  • Smart Ordering
  • Dynamic Drive Thru
RevenueIncrease US$45.9 million (2023)
Number of employees700 (2024)
Websitesoundhound.com
Footnotes / references

SoundHound AI, Inc. (Nasdaq: SOUN) is a voice artificial intelligence (AI) company founded in 2005. It is headquartered in Santa Clara, California. SoundHound provides a voice AI platform that enables businesses to offer customized conversational experiences to consumers.

SoundHound's technologies are used in a variety of voice-enabled products and services, primarily in automotive, TV, IoT, restaurant, customer service, healthcare, finance, and retail industries. The company holds more than 250 technology patents and supports voice AI in 25 languages.

SoundHound offers a range of AI-driven products, including Smart Answering, Smart Ordering, Dynamic Drive Thru, and SoundHound Chat AI, a voice assistant incorporating generative AI technology.

History

The company was co-founded in 2005 by Keyvan Mohajer, an Iranian-Canadian computer scientist and entrepreneur who specializes in voice AI.

In 2009, the company's music discovery app Midomi was rebranded as SoundHound, but is still available as a web version on midomi.com. The app grew from 2 million users in January 2010 to 100 million users in September 2012.

In 2015, SoundHound became the first music recognition service shipping in cars, in a partnership with Hyundai, in the new Genesis model.

In December 2015, SoundHound launched a voice AI platform that promised to “add voice-enabled conversational interface to anything,” built on the company's proprietary Speech-to-Meaning® and Deep Meaning Understanding® technologies.

In 2018, SoundHound Inc. announced partnerships with Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, and Honda to provide voice interaction for their products using its Houndify voice AI platform.

SoundHound won the 2020 Webby Award for Productivity (Voice) in the category Apps, Mobile & Voice.

On November 16, 2021, SoundHound announced plans to become a public company via a SPAC merger with Archimedes Tech SPAC Partners Co.

On April 28, 2022, the combined company SoundHound AI, Inc. went public, listed under the symbol SOUN on the Nasdaq.

In November 2022, the company laid off 10% of its employees and implemented salary cuts in response to "ongoing economic turmoil across global markets." It was also reported that SoundHound secured less than half of the anticipated funds from its SPAC merger deal. In January 2023, the company reduced its workforce by approximately 50%, and offered two weeks of severance, driven by the need to reassess financial strategies and expedite the company's path to profitability amid evolving market conditions.

In April 2023, SoundHound secured $100 million in strategic financing.

SoundHound's Dynamic Interaction solution was selected as the "Best Use of AI" at the 2023 Automation & Self-Service Awards.

In December 2023, SoundHound acquired SYNQ3 Restaurant Solutions, a provider of voice AI for restaurants, for $25 million.

In 2023-2024, SoundHound partnered with White Castle and Jersey Mike's Subs to provide AI-enabled drive-thrus and voice AI phone ordering at hundreds of locations. The company’s customer base also includes Chipotle, Applebee’s, Habit Burger, Noodles & Company, Beef O'Brady's, and Casey’s General Stores.

In June 2024, SoundHound acquired Allset, a restaurant ordering marketplace founded out of Ukraine.

During 2024, SoundHound introduced its voice AI assistant in Peugeot, Opel, Vauxhall, Alfa Romeo, Citroën, and Lancia vehicles across Europe.

In August 2024, SoundHound acquired Amelia AI for $85 million, aiming to expand its presence in the financial services, insurance, healthcare, retail, and hospitality sectors. Following this, Amelia powered MUSC Health’s new AI agent for patient appointment management and received the XCelent Advanced Technology 2024 Award for Retail Banking Solutions. In December 2024, Amelia platform has been named a Leader in the 2024 Frost Radar™: Enterprise Conversational AI in Healthcare.

In October 2024, SoundHound won the “Overall Connected Solution of the Year” award in 2024 AutoTech Breakthrough Awards Program for its Chat AI solution, an in-vehicle voice assistant with integrated generative AI technology.

In November 2024, SoundHound integrated its voice AI into Kia vehicles in India, including support for the Hindi language.

Funding and Nasdaq listing

According to a June 2015 article, SoundHound Inc. had raised a total of $40 million in funding with investments from Global Catalyst Partners, Translink Capital, Walden Venture Capital, and others. This included $7 million in a Series B funding round the company secured in October 2008, bringing total funds raised to $12 million at that time. The round was led by TransLink Capital with the participation of JAIC America and Series A investor Global Catalyst Partners. In 2009, SoundHound attracted additional funding from Larry Marcus at Walden Venture Capital, who had previously invested in music startups Pandora and Snocap. The $4 million funding round was led by Walden Venture Capital VII, with the participation of an unnamed device manufacturer.

In January 2017, the company raised another $75 million in an investment round that included Nvidia, Samsung, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, and others.

As of January 2018, the valuation of the company had reached $1 billion. Announced in May 2018, SoundHound raised $100 million from a funding round led by Tencent and joined by Daimler AG, Hyundai Motors, Midea Group, and Orange S.A.

In November 2021, Soundhound first announced the merger with Archimedes Tech SPAC Partners Co to go public with $2.1B valuation, with $111 million of investments from Oracle, Qatar First Bank, Koch Industries, and MKaNN Ventures, Cota Capital, VIZIO, HTC, FIH Mobile (a Foxconn Technology Group company), and others. The transaction closed in April 2022.

See also

References

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