Unlocking the power of Audio Intelligence with our $7.7m Series A funding

I'm delighted to announce that we've raised a $7.7M Series A round bringing our total funding to $11.55M. With this new round of funding, we plan to continue making audio more discoverable and better for everyone while supporting a thriving and innovative ecosystem.

First, I'd like to thank our creators who leverage Sounder to tell their stories, entertain their audiences, and inform their communities all with the power of their voice. I'd also like to thank our investors—iHeartMedia, TechNexus, Xoogler Network, Abrahamson Group, Diverse Angels, Adventure Fund, Ulu Ventures, Newark Venture Partners, and other early angel investors—who believe in our mission and the opportunity ahead of us.

A massive thank you and congratulations to our team in the US, Serbia, and the Netherlands for making today's announcement a reality. Our team has poured tremendous energy into getting us to this stage. Their passion and dedication excite us most about what we can achieve in the years ahead. We are excited to be able to continue growing the team with all-star talent (check out our careers page).

There is a vast untapped opportunity for the audio and podcasting industries, encompassing everyone from independent creators to large media companies to audio platforms. Unfortunately, this progress lags in comparison to other media. There's been a technology void that, until now, had not been accessible by most in the audio industry. Machine learning, artificial intelligence, and natural language processing have yet to impact our industry the way they've advanced other forms of content and monetization platforms over the last decade.

Today's announcement shifts this dynamic.

When my co-founders, Dan Daugherty and Goran Krgovic, reached out to me in January of 2019, little did I know we'd onboard thousands of creators, generate tens of millions of streams, and build an amazing team of 26 (and growing) full-time Soundernauts. We launched the company on a set of beliefs written down on a napkin—yes, very cliche but that's what we did. These beliefs, plus a few new ones, continue to guide the work we do today.

We've developed many innovative products and features that creators and media publishers leverage today to unlock new revenue opportunities, drive content discovery, deepen audience engagement, and improve workflow inefficiencies. Creators can leverage our platform to tell meaningful stories and have conversations that their audiences enjoy. Media publishers and platforms leverage our Audio Data Cloud to unlock the untapped potential for their audio content.

Our acquisition of Podnods last year accelerates the development development and heightens the value of all of these products. Most importantly, we brought on Mercan Topkara as our CTO. She brings 20+ years of AI and ML experience to a team focused on making these tools widely available to every audio creator and publisher in the form of audio intelligence.

Not only does this investment help us advance our mission, but it also validates the fact that AI, ML, and NLP technology can accelerate the growth of the audio industry. This is a defining moment for Sounder, but more importantly, for all of us who wake up every day trying to help elevate audio to the same level as formats like video and text-based media.

With this round of funding, we plan to accelerate the development of how podcasts are monetized, discovered, and engaged.

• Building an A+ Distributed Team Across the World — In addition to hiring in our current European and US regions, we are hiring podcast lovers globally to help us organize and shape the future of audio.
• Doubling-down on ML/AI technology — We will be building Audio Intelligence tools at scale to help empower creators of all sizes to be more successful in their craft.
• Reimagining ad tech solutions for podcasting — We will be building a complete ad system that supports publishers and advertisers of all sizes. This will reimagine the ad tech stack for the audio industry.

If any of these initiatives excite you and you want to be involved, please check out our careers page.

Without our creators, media and publishing partners, and the overall podcasting community, we wouldn't have the opportunity to serve this industry. We've learned so much from you and wouldn't be in this position without your support. We couldn't be more excited about what's ahead.

Let’s go.

Kal