Startups > SoundHound AI

SoundHound AI

SoundHound AI helps enterprises deploy conversational agents that handle customer transactions end-to-end.

$191M total Founded 2005 Santa Clara, California 347 employees

SoundHound AI is a voice and agentic AI platform that enables businesses to build and deploy conversational AI agents across digital and physical channels—phones, kiosks, drive-thrus, in-vehicle systems, and more. The company's proprietary OASYS platform automates conversations by learning from documentation and call transcripts, then self-improves by identifying where customers get stuck. With 400+ patents and 10+ billion automated conversations annually, SoundHound is a core infrastructure provider for enterprise conversational AI.

Problem solved

Businesses lack a self-learning conversational AI platform that can handle multi-channel customer interactions at scale while continuously improving from real conversation patterns.

Target customer

Enterprise and mid-market organizations in quick-service restaurants, automotive, customer service, and hospitality sectors; companies with high-volume customer interactions requiring omnichannel conversational AI.

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Founders

Keyvan Mohajer

Founder & CEO

PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford (2005), BSc in Engineering Science from University of Toronto; built SoundHound in his Stanford dorm room and has founded 3 companies prior.

Majid Emami

Co-Founder & Chief Science Officer

PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford; holds 16 patents in voice AI and speech recognition technology; leads R&D for machine learning and speech recognition.

James Hom

Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer

Co-founder leading product development across SoundHound AI platform and B2C products reaching hundreds of millions of end-users.

Funding history

Series A Unknown 2007 Led by Unknown · Unknown

Series B/C $40M June 2015 Led by Unknown · Global Catalyst Partners, Translink Capital, Walden Venture Capital

Series D $75M January 2017 Led by Unknown · Nvidia, Samsung Catalyst Fund, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers

Series E $100M May 3, 2018 Led by Tencent · Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai Motor Company, Midea

Post-IPO $3.7M February 22, 2024 Led by Unknown · Unknown

Total raised: $191M

Industries

Artificial Intelligence Audio Machine Learning Mobile Speech Recognition

Pricing

Subscription and usage-based licensing model with tiered pricing for API calls, specialized features, and support; professional services for custom AI model development and integration. Specific pricing not publicly available; contact sales for quotes.

Notable customers

Chipotle, Jersey Mike's, Applebee's, Habit Burger, Noodles & Company, Beef O'Brady's, Casey's General Stores, 10,000+ restaurant locations globally

Integrations

Drive-thru systems, in-vehicle infotainment, smart speakers, SMS/chat platforms, phone systems, kiosk interfaces, CRM systems (via API)

Tech stack

Lodash (JavaScript libraries) Select2 (JavaScript libraries) jQuery Migrate (JavaScript libraries) jQuery (JavaScript libraries) Isotope (JavaScript libraries) Drift (Live chat) PWA Open Graph WordPress (Blogs) Master Slider (Photo galleries) Linkedin Insight Tag (Analytics) Google Font API (Font scripts) PHP (Programming languages) Apple iCloud Mail (Webmail) Google Workspace (Email) Cloudflare (CDN) Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Marketing automation) MailChimp (Marketing automation) MySQL (Databases) Google Tag Manager (Tag managers) Yoast SEO (SEO) Yoast SEO Premium (SEO) WP Engine (PaaS) OneTrust (Cookie compliance) ProfilePress (WordPress plugins) Master Slider Plugin (WordPress plugins) WPML (WordPress plugins)

Website

soundhound.com/

Competitors

Google Dialogflow

Google's enterprise conversational AI offering; broader ecosystem but less specialized in speech-to-meaning and real-time latency optimization.

Amazon Lex

AWS's conversational service; tightly integrated with AWS ecosystem but less focused on omnichannel deployment and self-learning agent optimization.

Microsoft Bot Framework

Microsoft's conversational platform; strong enterprise integrations but less specialized in voice-first and self-improving agent paradigms.

Nuance Communications

Strong in enterprise voice; acquired by Microsoft but operates as separate division; broader enterprise footprint but less agile in AI-native agent deployment.

Why this matters: SoundHound is a critical infrastructure player in enterprise conversational AI with 19 years of voice AI R&D, 400+ patents, and $2.1B valuation at IPO (2022). The company's shift to agentic AI and self-improving agents positions it at the forefront of autonomous enterprise AI deployment across industries increasingly dependent on high-volume customer interactions.

Best for: Enterprise organizations handling high-volume customer interactions across multiple channels who need autonomous conversational AI agents that improve continuously from real conversation data.

Use cases

QSR Phone & Drive-Thru Ordering

Quick-service restaurants use SoundHound's AI to handle phone orders and drive-thru interactions, reducing labor while improving order accuracy. The platform learns from call patterns to refine ordering logic, handle complex requests, and reduce customer friction.

Automotive In-Vehicle Commands

Automotive OEMs integrate SoundHound's voice AI into vehicles for navigation, climate control, and infotainment without cloud latency. The self-learning engine improves voice command recognition from millions of driver interactions.

Customer Service & Support Automation

Contact centers deploy SoundHound agents to handle routine customer inquiries across phone, chat, and messaging. The platform identifies resolution bottlenecks and suggests logic improvements to reduce escalations and handle-time.

Smart Device & Kiosk Interactions

Companies use SoundHound's omnichannel platform to power voice interactions on smart speakers, checkout kiosks, and interactive displays. Multi-turn conversation support enables complex transactions in retail and hospitality.

Alternatives

Google Dialogflow Choose Dialogflow if you need tight Google Cloud integration and broader ML infrastructure; choose SoundHound if you prioritize real-time voice latency and self-learning agent optimization.

Amazon Lex Choose Lex for AWS-native deployments and broad AWS ecosystem integration; choose SoundHound for omnichannel voice-first experiences and proprietary speech-to-meaning technology.

Nuance Conversational AI Choose Nuance for legacy enterprise contracts and broad compliance certifications; choose SoundHound for faster deployment, modern agentic AI, and self-learning capabilities.

FAQ

What does SoundHound AI do? +

SoundHound AI is a conversational intelligence platform that enables businesses to build, deploy, and continuously improve AI agents across voice, chat, and omnichannel interfaces. The OASYS platform handles customer and employee interactions end-to-end, learning from conversation patterns to self-optimize agent logic without manual retraining.

How much does SoundHound AI cost? +

SoundHound AI uses a subscription and usage-based licensing model with tiered pricing for API calls, features, and support. Specific pricing depends on transaction volume, feature requirements, and integration scope. Contact sales for a custom quote.

What are alternatives to SoundHound AI? +

Key alternatives include Google Dialogflow (cloud-native, broader ecosystem), Amazon Lex (AWS-integrated), Nuance Conversational AI (legacy enterprise focus), and Microsoft Bot Framework. Each has different strengths in ecosystem integration, latency, and learning capabilities.

Who uses SoundHound AI? +

Quick-service restaurants (Chipotle, Jersey Mike's, Applebee's), automotive OEMs (Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai), contact centers, retail and hospitality companies, and smart device manufacturers. The platform serves 10,000+ restaurant locations and automates 10+ billion conversations annually.

How does SoundHound AI compare to Google Dialogflow? +

SoundHound specializes in real-time voice processing with proprietary speech-to-meaning technology, eliminating latency that Dialogflow may introduce. SoundHound's self-learning agent paradigm continuously improves from live conversation data, while Dialogflow requires manual retraining. Google offers broader cloud ecosystem integration; SoundHound offers faster omnichannel deployment and better voice optimization.