Merger will create a new AI market leader with over 10,000 restaurant locations and best-in-class voice AI solutions
SoundHound AI, Inc., a global leader in voice artificial intelligence, announced a definitive merger agreement to acquire SYNQ3 Restaurant Solutions, a leading provider of voice AI and other technology solutions to the restaurant industry.
“In joining forces, SoundHound AI and SYNQ3 will be the go-to standard for cutting-edge voice and conversational AI solutions for the restaurant industry”
The deal will make SoundHound the preeminent U.S. provider of voice AI for restaurants, significantly extending its market reach by an order of magnitude to over 10,000 signed locations and accelerating the deployment of leading-edge generative AI capabilities to the industry. SYNQ3 will add large brands spanning drive thru, fast casual, casual segments, and convenience stores to SoundHound’s fast growing customer base – bringing the total to more than 25 national and multinational chains.
The highly complementary businesses will match nearly two decades of SoundHound AI innovation with decades of SYNQ3 industry expertise and established relationships. The SYNQ3 team brings deep restaurant sales, product, and customer service experience with an increasing focus on AI. Seasoned executive talent like CEO and Co-Founder Steve Bigari, a former McDonald’s operator, will strengthen SoundHound AI’s leadership as the company moves to rapidly roll out its best-in-class proprietary AI solutions to restaurants across the U.S. and beyond.
Other immediate business benefits include:
- Over 100,000 restaurant locations in the combined pipeline, and over 10,000 signed
- A broad suite of AI products to offer SYNQ3’s established customer base additional value added services, including Dynamic Interaction, Smart Answering, and Employee Assist
- Revenue synergies with SoundHound’s existing restaurant business
- Enhanced AI models using data from over 50 million interactions to strengthen product performance
- Omnichannel voice and conversational AI offerings that allow restaurants to engage across multiple touchpoints
- An acceleration of SoundHound’s monetization strategy via voice-enabled food and drink ordering in millions of cars, TVs, and IoT devices
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“In joining forces, SoundHound AI and SYNQ3 will be the go-to standard for cutting-edge voice and conversational AI solutions for the restaurant industry,” said Keyvan Mohajer, CEO and Co-Founder of SoundHound AI. “Restaurant operators are turning to technology en masse, and voice AI is now playing a key role in helping them drive sales, reduce costs, and alleviate the burden of increasing demand on their employees.”
“SoundHound AI and SYNQ3 will provide our restaurant partners with a formidable voice solution that we believe significantly surpasses the competition,” said Steve Bigari, CEO and Co-Founder of SYNQ3. “Our businesses are highly complementary, with both AI and industry expertise at the core of who we are. Together, we plan to capitalize on those synergies to provide best-in-class AI ordering methodologies backed by the largest library of restaurant AI orders in the world. This will power a rapid acceleration of our growth!”
SoundHound is expected to pay a total consideration of $25 million. Over the next three years, based on certain revenue targets being achieved, up to $4 million of additional consideration could be realized. The aggregate consideration payable to stockholders of SYNQ3 consists of approximately 20% in cash and approximately 80% in shares of SoundHound’s Class A common stock. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of next year. Additional details will be provided on SoundHound’s fourth quarter 2023 earnings conference call.