SoundHound
SoundHound AI, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOUN) is an American technology company that develops independent voice artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, enabling businesses to deliver conversational experiences across industries such as automotive, restaurants, television, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and customer service.[1] Founded in 2005 by Keyvan Mohajer, James Hom, and Majid Emami during their time in Stanford University's electrical engineering doctoral program, the company initially gained recognition for its music identification app, Midomi (later rebranded as SoundHound), which used audio recognition technology to identify songs from hummed or sung queries.[1] Over time, SoundHound evolved into a leader in conversational intelligence, powering voice-enabled interactions that go beyond simple recognition to include natural language understanding and generative AI capabilities.[2] The company's core mission is to "voice-enable the world" by providing an independent Voice AI platform that integrates proprietary technologies like Speech-to-Meaning® for rapid speech processing and Deep Meaning Understanding® for contextual comprehension of user intent.[1] Key products include the SoundHound Chat AI, a generative AI assistant for complex queries; dynamic drive-thru ordering systems for restaurants (enhanced by the 2024 acquisition of Synq3); and enterprise solutions for sectors like automotive, where partnerships with Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, and Honda enable in-vehicle voice controls.[1] SoundHound's platform supports multilingual interactions and has been deployed in consumer electronics (e.g., VIZIO TVs) and telecom, emphasizing scalability and customization without reliance on large tech ecosystems.[1] Since going public on Nasdaq in April 2022 via a SPAC merger, SoundHound has expanded aggressively, acquiring Amelia in 2024 to bolster its enterprise AI offerings and reporting strong revenue growth, with Q3 2025 sales up 67.6% year-over-year.[3] The company has earned accolades such as the 2021 Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Award for conversational AI and multiple Speech Industry Awards, underscoring its innovation in making voice AI accessible and effective for real-world applications.[1]Overview
Founding and leadership
SoundHound AI, Inc. was founded on September 2, 2005, in Santa Clara, California, by Keyvan Mohajer, Majid Emami, and James Hom as a startup focused on music recognition technology under the initial name Midomi.[4][5][1] The company evolved from its origins in music identification applications to a broader emphasis on voice artificial intelligence, developing proprietary technologies that enable conversational interactions across consumer and enterprise uses, while maintaining its headquarters in Santa Clara and growing to 842 employees by the end of 2024.[1][6][2] Keyvan Mohajer serves as co-founder, president, and chief executive officer, leading the company's strategic direction with a background in computer science and prior entrepreneurial ventures; Majid Emami, another co-founder, holds the role of chief science officer and senior vice president of engineering, overseeing technical innovation; James Hom, the third co-founder, is chief product officer, focusing on product development and user experience.[7][1] Nitesh Sharan acts as chief financial officer, managing fiscal operations and investor relations.[8] The founders' initial motivation stemmed from a vision inspired by science fiction to enable natural spoken interactions with devices, leveraging speech-to-meaning technology to interpret audio inputs directly into actionable understanding for consumer applications, such as early music discovery tools that attracted over 100 million users by 2012.[7][9][10]Corporate structure and operations
SoundHound AI, Inc. operates as a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker symbol SOUN, following its business combination with Archimedes Tech SPAC Partners Co. in April 2022.[11][12] The corporate structure includes subsidiaries focused on specialized AI platforms and restaurant solutions, such as the wholly owned Synq3 Restaurant Solutions acquired to enhance operational capabilities in the hospitality sector.[13][1] The company's operational scale is supported by an intellectual property portfolio of nearly 400 granted or pending patents in areas like speech recognition and natural language processing as of September 2025.[14] SoundHound's voice AI technology accommodates nearly 30 languages, enabling multilingual interactions for global users.[15] Its platform processes nearly 3 billion conversational AI queries per quarter, reflecting substantial handling of user interactions across industries.[14] Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, SoundHound maintains additional U.S. offices in locations such as Boulder, Colorado, and extends its global footprint to Asia with an office in Beijing, China, alongside operations in Europe.[16][17][18] International expansion has been facilitated through strategic acquisitions that bolster regional presence and capabilities, including the September 2025 acquisition of Interactions to enhance agentic AI offerings.[1][14] As an independent voice AI platform, SoundHound provides scalable solutions to businesses in sectors including automotive, restaurants, and customer service, allowing integration without reliance on proprietary ecosystems from larger tech firms.[19][20] In 2024, the company reported revenue of $84.7 million, with Q3 2025 revenue reaching $42 million, up 68% year-over-year.[21][8]History
Early development (2005–2014)
SoundHound's origins trace back to 2005, when a group of Stanford University graduates founded the company initially under the name Melodis Corporation with a focus on advancing voice-enabled technologies.[1] In 2007, the company launched Midomi, a pioneering music recognition platform that allowed users to identify songs by humming, singing, or playing audio clips through a web-based interface, marking an innovative departure from traditional audio fingerprinting methods.[1] This service quickly gained initial traction among early adopters seeking a novel way to discover music without relying on device microphones for full recordings.[22] By 2009, following the expansion to mobile platforms including an iOS app release that year, Midomi was rebranded as the SoundHound app, signaling a strategic pivot from solely music identification to broader audio and voice recognition capabilities.[1][22] The web version of Midomi remained available alongside the app, supporting continued user access to the core humming-based search functionality.[23] This rebranding coincided with growing mobile adoption, as SoundHound integrated features like real-time song identification and lyrics search to enhance user engagement.[24] The platform experienced rapid user growth during this period, reaching 50 million users by October 2011, driven by word-of-mouth and app store visibility.[25] By September 2012, SoundHound had surpassed 100 million users worldwide, with daily searches exceeding 4 million and peak engagement hitting 1,000 identifications per second, underscoring its appeal in the emerging smartphone era.[26][25] Early development was not without challenges, as SoundHound faced stiff competition from established players like Shazam, which dominated the audio recognition market with its audio-capture approach.[27] To differentiate itself, the company emphasized its proprietary Speech-to-Meaning technology, which processed hummed or sung inputs directly into semantic understanding without intermediate transcription steps, enabling faster and more intuitive music discovery.[28] This focus on advanced voice processing helped SoundHound carve out a niche, even as it navigated the technical hurdles of scaling recognition accuracy across diverse user inputs and device limitations.[29]Product launches and partnerships (2015–2020)
In 2015, SoundHound launched the Houndify platform, a developer toolkit designed to enable the integration of customizable voice AI interfaces into various applications and devices.[30] This platform supported natural language processing, allowing developers to build conversational voice experiences powered by SoundHound's Speech-to-Meaning technology.[31] That same year, SoundHound partnered with Hyundai to integrate its music recognition capabilities into the 2015 Sonata models equipped with navigation systems, enabling in-car voice-activated song identification through the SoundHound app.[32] Building on these advancements, SoundHound expanded its automotive presence while enhancing consumer-facing tools. The Hound app, introduced as a standalone voice assistant, featured support for natural language queries, including follow-up questions for tasks like weather updates, calls, and searches, distinguishing it from more rigid command-based assistants.[33] This expansion into consumer apps complemented deeper ties in the automotive sector, where voice AI integrations like those in Hyundai vehicles began driving broader adoption. From 2017 to 2018, strategic investments from Nvidia and Samsung facilitated key partnerships focused on AI hardware integration. In early 2017, SoundHound secured $75 million in funding led by Nvidia GPU Ventures and Samsung Catalyst Fund, which supported the development of voice-enabled AI for edge computing and in-vehicle systems, including self-driving car applications.[34] These collaborations enabled SoundHound to embed its Houndify platform into Nvidia's GPU technologies and Samsung's device ecosystems, accelerating the scaling of conversational AI across hardware platforms.[35] By 2020, SoundHound's platform innovations earned recognition with a Webby Award in the Productivity (Voice) category for its mobile app, highlighting advancements in efficient, voice-driven user interactions.[36] This accolade underscored the growing impact of Houndify and related products in enhancing productivity through seamless natural language processing.Public listing and growth (2021–2025)
In November 2021, SoundHound announced a merger with Archimedes Tech SPAC Partners Co., a special purpose acquisition company, valuing the firm at a pro-forma enterprise value of approximately $2.1 billion and providing up to $244 million in gross proceeds.[37] The transaction was completed in April 2022, enabling SoundHound to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol SOUN, marking its transition to a publicly traded company.[38] Following its public listing, SoundHound expanded its voice AI applications into the restaurant sector, focusing on automated phone ordering systems to enhance customer service efficiency. By 2023, the company partnered with White Castle to deploy its AI voice assistant, named Julia, for drive-thru operations, allowing for natural language processing of orders.[39] In January 2024, SoundHound collaborated with Jersey Mike's Subs to roll out conversational voice AI for phone ordering at over 50 locations, enabling the system to handle 100% of calls, answer menu queries, and process complex orders without human intervention.[40] Key milestones in 2024 and 2025 underscored SoundHound's scaling in the restaurant domain and beyond. By October 2024, its phone ordering technology had processed over 100 million customer interactions across U.S. restaurants, facilitating hundreds of millions of dollars in orders and demonstrating robust adoption in quick-service environments.[41] In March 2025, SoundHound expanded its collaboration with NVIDIA to integrate NVIDIA AI Enterprise software, accelerating low-latency voice AI capabilities for edge computing applications, particularly in automotive and in-vehicle assistants powered by the NVIDIA DRIVE AGX platform.[42] SoundHound's growth translated into strong financial performance, with second-quarter 2025 revenue reaching a record $42.7 million, reflecting a 217% year-over-year increase driven by enterprise subscriptions and restaurant deployments. In the third quarter of 2025, revenue reached $42 million, up 68% year-over-year.[43][8] The company subsequently raised its full-year 2025 revenue outlook to $165–180 million, signaling confidence in continued expansion amid rising demand for conversational AI solutions.[8]Technology and products
Core voice AI platform
SoundHound's core voice AI platform, known as Houndify, is an independent and customizable system designed to enable developers to integrate conversational voice interfaces into devices and applications. Launched in 2015, Houndify facilitates the creation of smart assistants that support natural, human-like interactions by processing user inputs through proprietary technologies such as Speech-to-Meaning®, which interprets the semantic intent of spoken words in real-time—even before a sentence is complete—enhancing response speed and accuracy compared to traditional speech-to-text methods.[44][10][30] Complementing this, Houndify incorporates Deep Meaning Understanding® to handle contextual nuances and ambiguities in dialogue, allowing for more fluid and intuitive conversations that go beyond simple command recognition. The platform's technological foundation includes nearly 400 granted or pending patents focused on advancements in automatic speech recognition (ASR), voice synthesis, natural language processing, and agentic AI capabilities.[14] These patents enable multi-turn dialogues where the AI can autonomously manage complex interactions, such as clarifying ambiguities or executing sequential tasks without rigid scripting.[45][46][47] What sets Houndify apart from competitors reliant on pre-defined scripts or third-party ecosystems is its emphasis on agentic AI, which empowers the system to perform autonomous actions and adapt dynamically to user needs in open-ended scenarios. This independent architecture ensures data privacy and customization without dependency on dominant cloud providers. Houndify supports 25 languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, and Japanese, broadening its applicability for global deployments.[48][49] Additionally, through partnerships with NVIDIA, the platform integrates with edge devices like the NVIDIA DRIVE AGX for automotive applications, enabling low-latency, on-device processing that functions offline while maintaining high performance.[50][51]Key applications and integrations
SoundHound's voice AI technology has been integrated into automotive infotainment systems, enabling hands-free control for functions such as music playback, navigation, and vehicle settings. In vehicles from Hyundai, the platform powers dynamic voice recognition that processes natural language commands, allowing drivers to interact conversationally with their cars for tasks like adjusting climate controls or finding routes. This integration, part of a multi-year agreement, extends to other global automotive brands, where SoundHound's Chat AI assistant handles complex queries in real-time, enhancing driver safety and convenience across North American markets.[52][53][54][55] In the restaurant industry, SoundHound provides AI-driven voice ordering systems that automate drive-thru and phone interactions, interpreting natural language to process orders accurately and upsell items. For example, White Castle deploys SoundHound's voice AI, named Julia, in over 100 locations to handle customer conversations, reducing wait times and improving order accuracy compared to human-operated systems. This solution supports multi-channel ordering, integrating with point-of-sale systems to streamline operations for quick-service chains.[56][57][58] SoundHound's conversational AI serves enterprise customer service by automating interactions across contact centers, resolving inquiries through natural dialogue and integrating with backend systems for efficient support. The Amelia platform, now enhanced with capabilities for workflow orchestration, enables AI agents to manage complex tasks like ticket routing and escalation, supporting multilingual conversations for global businesses. These deployments handle high-volume interactions, contributing to billions of annual engagements processed by SoundHound's technology.[59][60][61][8] Beyond core sectors, SoundHound's platform extends to IoT devices, where it enables voice-enabled smart home and consumer products to respond to user commands with contextual awareness. In sales automation, the technology supports retail and finance applications by facilitating voice-guided shopping and lead qualification, boosting conversion rates through personalized recommendations. Healthcare integrations include AI agents for patient engagement, such as appointment scheduling and query resolution, deployed by providers like Allina Health to reduce administrative burdens and improve access. Collectively, these applications demonstrate SoundHound's versatility in embedding voice AI across diverse ecosystems, powering billions of interactions annually.[62][63][64][65][8]Funding and financial performance
Investment rounds
SoundHound secured its initial funding through a Series A round of $5 million in 2007, followed by Series B rounds totaling $11 million in 2008 and 2009 from investors including Global Catalyst Partners, TransLink Capital, and Walden Venture Capital.[66] By 2015, the company had raised a cumulative $40 million across early-stage rounds, primarily from Global Catalyst Partners and other venture firms, which supported initial product development and market expansion.[67] In January 2017, SoundHound completed a $75 million Series D round led by Nvidia and Samsung Catalyst Fund, with participation from Naver Corporation, Nomura Holdings, Sompo Holdings, Recruit Holdings, Kleiner Perkins, and returning investors such as Global Catalyst Partners and TransLink Capital; this funding valued the company at approximately $830 million and was aimed at scaling its voice AI platform internationally.[34][68] The company raised an additional $100 million in a Series E round in May 2018, led by Tencent Holdings with investments from Daimler (Mercedes-Benz), Hyundai Motor Company, Midea Group, Orange S.A., Samsung Electronics, HTC Corporation, LINE Corporation, and KT Investment; this round focused on advancing automotive voice AI integrations and brought the total funding to over $200 million pre-IPO.[66] SoundHound went public in 2022 through a SPAC merger with Archimedes Tech SPAC Partners Co., valuing the company at $2.1 billion and providing up to $244 million in gross proceeds for further growth.[69]| Date | Round Type | Amount Raised | Key Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Series A | $5 million | Unspecified venture investors |
| October 2008 | Series B | $7 million | Global Catalyst Partners, TransLink Capital |
| August 2009 | Series B | $4 million | Walden Venture Capital |
| 2015 (cumulative pre-2017) | Various early-stage | $40 million total | Global Catalyst Partners and others |
| January 2017 | Series D | $75 million | Nvidia (lead), Samsung Catalyst Fund (co-lead), Naver, Nomura, Sompo Holdings, Recruit Holdings, Kleiner Perkins, Global Catalyst Partners, TransLink Capital |
| May 2018 | Series E | $100 million | Tencent Holdings (lead), Daimler, Hyundai Motor Company, Midea Group, Orange S.A., Samsung Electronics, HTC, LINE, KT Investment |
| November 2021 | SPAC Merger | $2.1 billion valuation (up to $244 million proceeds) | Archimedes Tech SPAC Partners Co. |