Voice AI company SoundHound laid off 200 people, or about half of its workforce, in a massive layoff last week, Gizmodo reports.
Three recently laid-off employees told Gizmodo that SoundHound offered a “pitifully low” severance package of just two weeks, not including health care. The employees also said that the severance pay is contingent on SoundHound raising more money, and it’s unclear what will happen if the company can’t secure additional funding.
SoundHound was founded in 2005 by Stanford graduate Keyvan Mohajer, who is still the company’s CEO, and the Santa Clara company is now a major provider of AI voice software for companies like Pandora, Snap, Mercedes-Benz and Netflix.
In an email to employees about the layoffs, Mohajer blamed “changing economic conditions, including high-interest rates, rising inflation and recessionary concerns” for the cuts.
The layoffs mark a dramatic turnaround for the voice AI company, which grew rapidly in 2021 and became a public company last year. 10% of SoundHound’s workforce was laid off in November 2022, and the salaries of existing employees were cut. That layoff, combined with this one, means that in the past three months, SoundHound has lost more than 50 percent of the 450 employees it had in October 2022.
