SoundHound, the voice AI company, raises $25M after laying off 40% of staff earlier this month
In a follow-up to our earlier report that SoundHound was laying off 40 percent of its staff, the company has now confirmed that it has raised $25 million in a Series E round of funding led by C Hear.
In a statement, SoundHound CEO Keyvan Mohajer said that the funding will be used to “aggressively pursue” the company’s voice AI ambitions. The company had originally raised $175 million back in 2015, and its last valuation was $300 million. At the time of the layoffs, Mohajer said that the company had “enough cash to make it through the end of the year.”
The company’s primary product is its Houndify voice AI platform, which it offers to enterprises. The company had said that it was seeing “strong traction” with Houndify, but it’s not clear how that has been affected by the layoffs.
The new funding round comes as the voice AI space is becoming increasingly competitive. Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Facebook are all vying for supremacy, and it’s not clear how long smaller companies like SoundHound will be able to survive. For now, though, the company appears to be safe — at least for the next few months.
SoundHound, the voice AI company, has raised $25M after laying off 40% of its staff earlier this month. The company has been working on voice AI for over 10 years and has one of the most advanced voice recognition systems in the world. Despite this, the company has been struggling to find a way to monetize its technology.
In recent years, SoundHound has made a number of acquisitions in an attempt to diversify its business. However, these acquisitions have not been successful in generating revenue. As a result, the company has been forced to lay off a significant portion of its workforce.
Despite the challenges it is facing, SoundHound remains optimistic about the future. The company is still investing in voice AI and is confident that it will eventually find a way to monetize its technology. SoundHound, the voice AI company, raises $25M after laying off 40% of staff earlier this month.
The company has been under pressure to raise money after slashed its valuation by 40% in January, when it last raised funding.
SoundHound Inc., the artificial intelligence and music startup, has raised $25 million in new funding, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The round was led by returning investor EDB Investments, with participation from new investors including chemicals company Suez and South Korean conglomerate SK Holdings.
This comes after the company announced it would lay off 40% of its staff earlier this month, as it looks to cut costs.
SoundHound has been under pressure to raise money after it slashed its valuation by 40% in January, when it last raised funding. The company had been valued at $1.1 billion at the time, but is now worth around $660 million, according to PitchBook.
The new funding will be used to help the company reach profitability, according to a person familiar with the matter.
SoundHound, which was founded in 2005, has raised a total of $213 million to date.