{"id":341476,"date":"2025-12-13T05:13:40","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T05:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/business\/finance\/cfo-corner-nitesh-sharan-soundhound-ai\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T05:13:40","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T05:13:40","slug":"cfo-corner-nitesh-sharan-soundhound-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476","title":{"rendered":"CFO Corner: Nitesh Sharan, SoundHound AI"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\t<\/p>\n

Nitesh Sharan has served as CFO of SoundHound AI since September 2021. The company, a leader in voice and conversational AI, went public on April 28, 2022. Before joining SoundHound, Sharan held senior finance roles at Nike, including Treasurer, Head of Investor Relations, and CFO of Global Operations, as well as leadership positions at HP and Accenture.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Global Finance: What stands out as your main achievements leading finance at SoundHound AI?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nitesh Sharan:<\/strong> When I joined SoundHound, it was still private and at an inflection point\u2014preparing to scale truly breakthrough voice AI technology. SoundHound is a next-gen technology company founded 20 years ago by Stanford PhDs and computer scientists who believed that one day, humans would communicate with technology through natural conversation, just like they talk to one another.<\/p>\n

Taking the company public in 2022, during one of the most challenging years to do so, was certainly a defining milestone. It brought complexities of sustaining growth, managing liquidity, and scaling fast while navigating market headwinds. Beyond going public, my focus has been on building and scaling the finance function from the ground up, putting in place the systems, talent, and processes to help us operate with both speed and agility. We\u2019ve raised capital, entered new markets, and introduced new pricing and revenue models that better align with our strategic vision.<\/p>\n

Our mission is simple but also ambitious: to change how people interact with technology and make it accessible to everyone. We\u2019re not repaving old roads\u2014we\u2019re building new ones.<\/p>\n

GF: Besides a high level of organic growth, SoundHound AI has also carried out several acquisitions. Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sharan:<\/strong> Until 2024, the company\u2019s growth was entirely organic. Since then, we have acquired four companies: SYNQ3, Allset, Amelia, and Interactions. Each brought unique capabilities and established customer relationships. We knew the world was changing rapidly, and we didn\u2019t believe that only looking internally for great ideas was a good idea. There are incredible teams out there doing great work, and we saw real opportunities to combine strengths and accelerate innovation together.<\/p>\n

GF: Will you buy more in the future?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sharan:<\/strong> Possibly, yes. We remain open\u2014and we have to be. We evaluate every opportunity through a strict lens, with strategic, operational, and financial considerations. Ultimately, we are trying to change how humans interact with technology, and every acquisition has to support that mission.<\/p>\n

GF: There are concerns that AI investments are too costly. Would you agree?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sharan:<\/strong> I disagree. Every era of fundamental disruption\u2014from the railroad to electricity to the internet, cloud, and mobile\u2014has seen some skepticism. Growth and change don\u2019t happen linearly; they ebb and flow, but the overall trajectory of the AI industry keeps rising. Having witnessed many inflection points in my career, I believe this may be the biggest yet. And we\u2019re still in the early days.<\/p>\n

Right now, we\u2019ve only scratched the surface. Across industries\u2014from education to healthcare and financial services\u2014the potential of generative and agentic AI remains largely untapped. From a broader view, this transformation is just beginning, and collectively, we\u2019re not investing enough across the breadth of ways to utilize these technologies.<\/p>\n

GF: Are you using AI tools inside the finance team itself, and how have they changed your day-to-day work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sharan: <\/strong>We are using the technology ourselves, and the impact is becoming visible across the company\u2014getting twice as much done with our existing staff. Within my broader function, spanning finance, strategy, HR, and legal, we are seeing green shoots of efficiency and innovation.<\/p>\n

That said, things are evolving quickly. New tools are emerging every week, and while we\u2019re exploring many of them, we\u2019re intentional in our approach. In accounting, for instance, we\u2019re cautious about full automation but already leveraging AI for research and documentation. We\u2019re also testing AI tools in planning and payables to scale more efficiently. So, we\u2019re experimenting broadly, staying open-minded, and I expect we\u2019ll have even more to share a year from now.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nitesh Sharan has served as CFO of SoundHound AI since September 2021. The company, a leader in voice and conversational AI, went public on April 28, 2022. Before joining SoundHound, Sharan held senior finance roles at Nike, including Treasurer, Head of Investor Relations, and CFO of Global Operations, as well as leadership positions at HP […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":341477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[20582,3651,165279,114911,81036],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-341476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-cfo","tag-corner","tag-nitesh","tag-sharan","tag-soundhound"],"yoast_head":"\nCFO Corner: Nitesh Sharan, SoundHound AI - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CFO Corner: Nitesh Sharan, SoundHound AI - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nitesh Sharan has served as CFO of SoundHound AI since September 2021. The company, a leader in voice and conversational AI, went public on April 28, 2022. Before joining SoundHound, Sharan held senior finance roles at Nike, including Treasurer, Head of Investor Relations, and CFO of Global Operations, as well as leadership positions at HP […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-13T05:13:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Soundhoud_AI_CFO.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1128\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"634\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\"},\"headline\":\"CFO Corner: Nitesh Sharan, SoundHound AI\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-13T05:13:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476\"},\"wordCount\":673,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Soundhoud_AI_CFO.png\",\"keywords\":[\"CFO\",\"Corner\",\"Nitesh\",\"sharan\",\"SoundHound\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Finance\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476\",\"name\":\"CFO Corner: Nitesh Sharan, SoundHound AI - Som2ny Network\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Soundhoud_AI_CFO.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-13T05:13:40+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Soundhoud_AI_CFO.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Soundhoud_AI_CFO.png\",\"width\":1128,\"height\":634},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?bp_activities=1\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"CFO Corner: Nitesh Sharan, SoundHound AI\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/\",\"name\":\"Som2ny Network\",\"description\":\"Daily Deals\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Som2ny Network\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png\",\"width\":300,\"height\":86,\"caption\":\"Som2ny Network\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"CFO Corner: Nitesh Sharan, SoundHound AI - Som2ny Network","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"CFO Corner: Nitesh Sharan, SoundHound AI - Som2ny Network","og_description":"Nitesh Sharan has served as CFO of SoundHound AI since September 2021. The company, a leader in voice and conversational AI, went public on April 28, 2022. Before joining SoundHound, Sharan held senior finance roles at Nike, including Treasurer, Head of Investor Relations, and CFO of Global Operations, as well as leadership positions at HP […]","og_url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476","og_site_name":"Som2ny Network","article_published_time":"2025-12-13T05:13:40+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1128,"height":634,"url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Soundhoud_AI_CFO.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371"},"headline":"CFO Corner: Nitesh Sharan, SoundHound AI","datePublished":"2025-12-13T05:13:40+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476"},"wordCount":673,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Soundhoud_AI_CFO.png","keywords":["CFO","Corner","Nitesh","sharan","SoundHound"],"articleSection":["Finance"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476","name":"CFO Corner: Nitesh Sharan, SoundHound AI - Som2ny Network","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Soundhoud_AI_CFO.png","datePublished":"2025-12-13T05:13:40+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Soundhoud_AI_CFO.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Soundhoud_AI_CFO.png","width":1128,"height":634},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=341476#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?bp_activities=1"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"CFO Corner: Nitesh Sharan, SoundHound AI"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/","name":"Som2ny Network","description":"Daily Deals","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization","name":"Som2ny Network","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png","width":300,"height":86,"caption":"Som2ny Network"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/fivemor.com"],"url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=341476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/341477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=341476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=341476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=341476"},{"taxonomy":"dealstore","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fdealstore&post=341476"},{"taxonomy":"offerexpiration","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fofferexpiration&post=341476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}