For SoundHound AI, the deal marks a significant and strategic expansion of its existing customer service pillar, adding breadth and depth to a division that has seen substantial growth amid the accelerated adoption of voice and conversational generative AI solutions. The acquisition positions the company at the center of this space, as enterprise spending on generative AI is forecast to gather more momentum, reaching between $175 billion and $250 billion by 2027 (McKinsey, June 2024).
The combination of AI expertise, proprietary technology, complementary product offerings, and extensive cross-industry deployment gives the unified company a distinct competitive advantage in the voice interface market. Identified synergies also include cross-selling and up-selling revenue opportunities, while SoundHound's proprietary tech and cloud migration is expected to create cost savings for Amelia's services.
With the acquisition, SoundHound AI also expects to expand its activities in fast-growing voice commerce opportunities, from ordering food, to buying tickets, and making appointments. Deep integration with multiple large enterprise customers and channel partners will allow a global presence, leveraging also a strong R&D center in Bangalore, India
The acquisition for $80M in cash and equity, with partial payment and assumption of Amelia's debt, was confirmed immediately before SoundHound AI reported its financial results for the second quarter 2024. SoundHound AI also reported important new contracts with one of the largest pizza chains in the world to supply phone ordering services in thousands of stores, roll-outs for Beef ‘O’ Brady’s sports bar and grill chain to go live in more than 20 states across the US, and drive-thru voice interfaces and employee assist voice solutions for back-of-house staff in multiple brands – including two prominent coffee shop chains. In the last quarter, SoundHound also acquired Allset, a food ordering platform to fast-track the company's vision of a voice commerce ecosystem.
SoundHound AI also confirmed plans to bring voice transactions – like food ordering – to its range of voice-enabled products, including vehicles, TVs, and devices. Now Amelia brings the potential to add consumer transactions across healthcare, financial services, and retail.
"SoundHound AI has emerged as a leader in bringing voice-enabled conversational AI to products and services. Now with more businesses choosing voice AI technology for customer service – and more consumers expecting a seamless, AI-powered service – this acquisition positions SoundHound as a strong force with range, scale, and world class technology," says Keyvan Mohajer, CEO and Co-Founder of SoundHound AI. "Amelia is an innovative company that shares our passion for AI-fueled conversations. We are looking forward to leveraging our shared capabilities to offer the best AI customer support solutions available anywhere."
Alongside partner relationships built over 25 years, Amelia brings additional AI expertise to SoundHound, as well as new intellectual property, and the ability to effortlessly execute on a broader range of integrations with enterprise software.
"We’re excited to bring Amelia’s experience and relationships to SoundHound AI, bolstering the company's growing AI customer service business to form a new category leader in the space," adds Lanham Napier, President of Amelia and Co-Founder of BuildGroup. "With impressive penetration into a range of vertical industries, proprietary technology, and decades of combined AI experience, SoundHound is well positioned to take advantage of burgeoning interest in conversational AI customer support."
www.amelia.ai
www.soundhound.com
