Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
SoundHound
American music and speech recognition company From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Remove ads
SoundHound AI, Inc. (Nasdaq: SOUN) is a Santa Clara, California-based generative AI voice and music recognition company. It was originally founded as Melodis in 2005 before rebranding to SoundHound Inc. in 2010, and SoundHound AI in 2022.
SoundHound provides voice-recognition and synthesis software for use in business and sales applications, such as drive-through restaurants.[2][3][4]
Remove ads
History
Summarize
Perspective
The company was founded in 2005 as Melodis Corp by Keyvan Mohajer, Majid Emami, and James Hom. The company initially focused on music recognition as a competitor to the Shazam app.[5][6][7]
In 2009, the company's music discovery app Midomi was rebranded as SoundHound but was still available as a web version on midomi.com until February 2025.[8][9] The app grew from 2 million users in January 2010 to 100 million users in September 2012.[10]
In 2010, the company formally rebranded from Melodis Corp. to SoundHound.[5][7]
In 2015, Hyundai Motors began offering the SoundHound music recognitions app in the infotainment systems of some Hyundai and Kia models.[11]
In December 2015, SoundHound launched Houndify, a voice interface for other products and services.[12]
In 2022, coinciding with its listing on NASDAQ, the company rebranded from SoundHound to SoundHhound AI.[13]
In December 2023, SoundHound acquired SYNQ3 Restaurant Solutions, a provider of voice AI for restaurants, for $25 million.[14]
In 2023–2024, SoundHound began providing voice AI phone ordering technology to various restaurant chains, starting with Jersey Mike's Subs and White Castle.[15][16] The company's customer base also includes Applebee's, Beef O'Brady's, Casey's General Stores, Chipotle, Church's Texas Chicken, Habit Burger, Noodles & Company, Torchy's Tacos, and Red Lobster.[17][18][19][20] As of 2023, SoundHound's AI voice platform supported 25 languages.[21] In October 2024, SoundHound claimed their phone ordering technology had processed over 100 million interactions with restaurant customers.[22]
In June 2024, SoundHound acquired Allset, a restaurant ordering marketplace founded out of Ukraine.[23]
In August 2024, SoundHound acquired Amelia AI for $85 million.[24]
In September 2025, it was announced that SoundHound had completed its acquisition of Interactions LLC, a company which also developed AI for the customer service market.[25]
Remove ads
Funding
Summarize
Perspective
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.[26] 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.[27] 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.[28]
In January 2017, the company raised another $75 million in an investment round that included Nvidia, Samsung, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, and others.[29]
As of January 2018, the valuation of the company had reached $1 billion.[30] 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.[31]
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.[32][33]
On April 28, 2022, the combined company SoundHound AI, Inc. went public, listed under the symbol SOUN on the Nasdaq.[34]
In November 2022, the company implemented a 10% workforce reduction and salary adjustments.[35] Reports at the time indicated that SoundHound had secured less than half of the anticipated funds from its SPAC merger.[36] In January 2023, the company reduced its workforce by approximately 50%, driven by the need to realign financial strategies and expedite the company's path to profitability amid evolving market conditions.[37]
In April 2023, SoundHound secured $100 million in strategic financing.[38]
In February 2025, Nvidia disclosed in a regulatory filing that it had sold its stake in SoundHound.[39]
In the second quarter of 2025, the company reported a revenue of $42.7 million, an increase of 217% year-over-year.[40]
Remove ads
Awards and recognition
SoundHound won the 2020 Webby Award for Productivity (Voice) in the category Apps, Mobile & Voice.[41]
See also
References
External links
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads