Soundhound, a Voice AI company, has reported that half of its workforce has been laid off
SoundHound, the company who once stated it wanted to According to reports, the AI voice market’s dominant position has seen its workforce cut by half. According to As part of a restructuring process, about 200 employees were laid off by the company last week. If Gizmodo’s If the reporting is correct, this mass layoff would be SoundHound’s second in less than one year. The company reported that it had laid off 5,000 employees in November. . SoundHound employed around 450 people before the first round.
Three former employees speak out Gizmodo described a “pitiful” severance package contingent on the company raising more money. They claim that the package only includes two weeks of severance and no healthcare. The company did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment. SoundCloud went public in 2022 via a special-purpose acquisitions company. Data from To date, the company has raised more that $300 million. SoundHound customers are Pandora, Mercedes-Benz, and Snap.
In an email that was received by GizmodoSoundHound CEO Keyvan Mohajer and co-founder of the company, attributed the layoffs to recent macroeconomic conditions. “When we set course in early 2021 to become publicly listed, high-tech companies like SoundHound were the darlings of the investor community. Companies who could achieve high growth, despite high costs, were seen as engines of a future economy, ” he wrote. “However, as a result of changing economic conditions, including high interest rates, rising inflation, and fears of recession, companies with our profile became much less desirable.” Mohajer reportedly went on to add investors “were concerned” SoundHound did “not have the heart to let go of its people.”
Mass layoffs at tech companies have been frequent in recent months. Facebook parent Meta had cut around 2,000 employees at the beginning of November. More than 11,000 people lost their jobs in the move. Amazon was recently added to the list. expanded the scope More than 18,000 employees are affected by its company-wide layoffs.