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SoundHound

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Not to be confused with SoundCloud.

SoundHound AI, Inc.
Company typePublic
Nasdaq: SOUN
Industry
FoundedSeptember 2005; 20 years ago (2005-09)
HeadquartersSanta Clara, California, United States
Products
RevenueIncrease US$84.7 million (2024)
Number of employees
700 (2024)
Websitesoundhound.com
Footnotes / references
[1]

SoundHound AI, Inc. (Nasdaq: SOUN) is a voice artificial intelligence (AI) company founded in 2005. It is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.

SoundHound provides voice-recognition and synthesis software for use in business and sales applications.[2][3][4] The company holds more than 250 technology patents[5] It supports voice AI in 25 languages.[6]

History

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The company was founded in 2005.[citation needed]

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.[7][8] The app grew from 2 million users in January 2010 to 100 million users in September 2012.[9]

In 2015, Hyundai Motors began offering the SoundHound music recognitions app in the infotainment systems of some Hyundai and Kia models.[10]

In December 2015, SoundHound launched Houndify, a voice interface for other products and services.[11]

In December 2023, SoundHound acquired SYNQ3 Restaurant Solutions, a provider of voice AI for restaurants, for $25 million.[12]

In 2023–2024, SoundHound began providing voice AI phone ordering technology to various restaurant chains, starting with Jersey Mike's Subs and White Castle.[13][14] 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.[15][16][17][18] In October 2024, SoundHound claimed their phone ordering technology had processed over 100 million interactions with restaurant customers.[19]

In June 2024, SoundHound acquired Allset, a restaurant ordering marketplace founded out of Ukraine.[20]

In August 2024, SoundHound acquired Amelia AI for $85 million.[21]

In September 2025, it was announced that SoundHound had completed its acquisition of Interactions LLC, a company specializing in AI for customer service and workflow orchestration.[22]

Funding

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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.[23] 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.[24] 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.[25]

In January 2017, the company raised another $75 million in an investment round that included Nvidia, Samsung, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, and others.[26]

As of January 2018, the valuation of the company had reached $1 billion.[27] 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.[28]

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.[29][30]

On April 28, 2022, the combined company SoundHound AI, Inc. went public, listed under the symbol SOUN on the Nasdaq.[31]

In November 2022, the company implemented a 10% workforce reduction and salary adjustments.[32] Reports at the time indicated that SoundHound had secured less than half of the anticipated funds from its SPAC merger.[33] 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.[34]

In April 2023, SoundHound secured $100 million in strategic financing.[35]

In February 2025, Nvidia disclosed in a regulatory filing that it had sold its stake in SoundHound.[36] Later in March 2025, SoundHound participated in Nvidia GTC 2025 and announced an expanded collaboration with Nvidia, integrating Nvidia AI Enterprise.[37]

In the second quarter of 2025, the company reported a revenue of $42.7 million, an increase of 217% year-over-year.[38]

Awards and recognition

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SoundHound won the 2020 Webby Award for Productivity (Voice) in the category Apps, Mobile & Voice.[39]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "SoundHound AI, Inc. 2023 Annual Report (Form 10-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. March 1, 2024.
  2. ^ Lucas, Peter (May 5, 2023). "Presto Rolls Out Voice Ordering; SoundHound Integrates Voice Ordering With Oracle's POS". Digital Transactions. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  3. ^ Godwin, Cody (December 2, 2022). "Does the future of drive-thrus look less human? AI software shows off order-taking skills". USA TODAY. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  4. ^ "10-K Annual Report Fri Mar 01 2024". Last10K.com. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  5. ^ "SoundHound Patents – Insights & Stats (Updated 2024)". Insights;Gate. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  6. ^ Yu, Jea (February 8, 2023). "Is SoundHound Voice AI the Next Big Thing?". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved October 4, 2024.
  7. ^ Rollison, Damian (January 27, 2010). "Tune identifier SoundHound announces new version with Pandora, tour dates". Venturebeat. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  8. ^ "midomi.com". Archived from the original on February 14, 2025. Retrieved October 11, 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  9. ^ Empson, Rip (September 20, 2012). "Chasing Shazam, SoundHound Quietly Passes 100M Users, Averaging 200K Downloads/Day". TechCrunch. Retrieved October 1, 2024.
  10. ^ "Hyundai and Kia tap SoundHound to help you identify music in your car". Engadget. January 14, 2014. Retrieved June 5, 2015.
  11. ^ Ha, Anthony (December 15, 2015). "SoundHound Launches Houndify Platform To Add A Voice Interface To Other Apps And Devices". TechCrunch. Retrieved October 1, 2024.
  12. ^ Rossolillo, Nicholas (December 8, 2023). "SoundHound AI Bets on the Restaurant Industry -- Is the Stock a Buy Before the End of 2023?". The Motley Fool. Retrieved December 8, 2023.
  13. ^ Canham-Clyne, Aneurin (January 25, 2024). "Jersey Mike's to use SoundHound's phone AI in at least 50 restaurants". Restaurant Dive. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  14. ^ David, Emilia (August 2, 2023). "White Castle will bring more AI to its drive-thrus". The Verge. Retrieved October 9, 2024.
  15. ^ "SoundHound AI Eclipses 100 Million Interactions in Restaurant Phone Orders". QSR Magazine. October 31, 2024. Retrieved November 1, 2024.
  16. ^ Canham-Clyne, Aneurin (December 5, 2024). "Torchy's Tacos deploys phone AI ordering". Restaurant Dive. Retrieved January 20, 2025.
  17. ^ Canham-Clyne, Aneurin (December 11, 2024). "Church's Texas Chicken turns to drive-thru AI". Restaurant Dive. Retrieved January 20, 2025.
  18. ^ Guszkowski, Joe (September 23, 2025). "Red Lobster and Captain D's add AI voice ordering". Restaurant Business. Retrieved September 25, 2025.
  19. ^ "SoundHound AI Eclipses 100 Million Interactions in Restaurant Phone Orders". QSR Magazine. October 31, 2024. Retrieved November 1, 2024.
  20. ^ David, Emilia (June 20, 2024). "SoundHound buys Allset to bring AI voice ordering to more drive-throughs". VentureBeat. Retrieved January 15, 2025.
  21. ^ "SoundHound Expands Reach of Conversational AI Offering With Amelia Acquisition". PYMNTS. August 8, 2024. Retrieved January 15, 2025.
  22. ^ Mitchell, Charlie (September 9, 2025). "SoundHound AI Acquires Interactions for $60MN, Converges the Conversational AI Space". CX Today. Retrieved September 12, 2025.
  23. ^ Winkler, Rolf (June 2, 2015). "SoundHound App Emerges to Take On Apple and Google in Voice Search". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on June 12, 2015. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  24. ^ Staff, V. C. J. (October 8, 2008). "Melodis Adds $7 Million". Venture Capital Journal. Retrieved November 7, 2023.
  25. ^ Wauters, Robin (August 25, 2011). "Music Search Startup SoundHound Partners With Spotify For Instant Streaming". TechCrunch. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  26. ^ Yeung, Ken (January 31, 2017). "SoundHound raises $75 million to expand access to its Houndify voice-powered platform". VentureBeat.com. VentureBeat. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
  27. ^ Schleifer, Theodore (January 24, 2018). "SoundHound, once just a music-recognition app, is now a billion dollar company". recode. Archived from the original on January 25, 2018. Retrieved September 8, 2023.
  28. ^ Lynley, Matthew (May 3, 2018). "SoundHound has raised a big $100M round to take on Alexa and Google Assistant". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 21, 2018.
  29. ^ "INSERTING and REPLACING SoundHound Inc., Global Leader in Voice AI Technology, to Become Publicly Traded Through Proposed Merger With Archimedes Tech SPAC Partners Co". www.businesswire.com (Press release). November 16, 2021. Retrieved January 16, 2022.
  30. ^ "Qatar First Bank invests in US-based voice AI firm, SoundHound - NNR". NewsnReleases (Press release). November 28, 2021. Retrieved January 16, 2022.
  31. ^ "SoundHound Announces Closing of Business Combination" (Press release). April 27, 2022.
  32. ^ Singh, Jagmeet (November 10, 2022). "SoundHound, the voice AI platform, lays off 10% of staff citing 'challenging market conditions'". TechCrunch. Retrieved October 3, 2024.
  33. ^ Schubarth, Cromwell (November 10, 2022). "SoundHound is slashing 10% of its staff and cutting the pay of other workers". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved May 28, 2024.
  34. ^ DeGeurin, Mack (January 13, 2023). "Voice AI Company SoundHound Lays Off Nearly Half Its Staff and Offers 'Pitiful' Severance". Gizmodo. Retrieved July 19, 2024.
  35. ^ "SoundHound AI Secures $100 Million in Strategic Financing From Atlas Credit Partners". www.businesswire.com (Press release). April 17, 2023. Retrieved October 6, 2024.
  36. ^ Singh, Jaspreet (February 14, 2025). "Nvidia cuts stake in Arm Holdings, discloses position in China's WeRide". Reuters. Retrieved February 24, 2025.
  37. ^ "SoundHound AI Delivers Faster, Smarter Voice Assistants At Scale with NVIDIA AI Enterprise". Yahoo Finance. March 19, 2025. Retrieved March 24, 2025.
  38. ^ "SoundHound Stock Soars 20% on 'Strongest Ever Quarter'". Barron's. August 8, 2025. Retrieved August 12, 2025.
  39. ^ Kastrenakes, Jacob (May 20, 2020). "Here are all the winners of the 2020 Webby Awards". The Verge. Retrieved May 22, 2020.
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  • Business data for SoundHound AI, Inc.:
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