Why Sonos Is Acquiring Snips For $37.5 Million

By Dan Anderson • Nov 22, 2019
  • Sonos announced it has acquired Snips for approximately $37.5 million. These are the details about the deal.

Sonos announced it is acquiring Snips for approximately $37.5 million. Snips is an AI voice platform for connected devices that provides private-by-design voice technology. This acquisition is going to bring a talented group of employees and strategic IP to Sonos in order to make the voice experience on Sonos even better.

Launched in Paris, France back in 2013, Snips has over 50 talented engineering, machine learning, and product development professionals on staff.

And Snips has built a leading platform and tools for creating tailored voice experiences. Plus its full-stack solution is built with proprietary technology, allowing for voice processing on the device.

“Millions of people have come to enjoy the ease of controlling music with their voice. Today’s announcement gives us the added talent and technology to create an even more differentiated and immersive experience for customers, both inside and outside of the home,” said Sonos CEO Patrick Spence. “We’re excited to welcome an incredible Snips team to the Sonos family to help bring this vision to life.”

By localizing the processing, it ensures accuracy, efficiency, and privacy while minimizing footprint and cloud dependency.

“I am extremely proud of the team and the work we have accomplished over the last five years. The technology we have created has been validated by one of the leaders in consumer electronics. I am thrilled that, joining an international company, Snips will continue its operations in France, helping French technologies succeed at an international level,” added Snips co-founder and CEO Dr. Rand Hindi.

Snips’ voice assistants are custom-built for specific tasks and designed to run alongside other general-purpose voice assistants currently on the Sonos platform.

“We are thrilled to join forces with Sonos, a company that shares our core values, to continue our work and take private-by-design voice experiences to a truly global audience. We see an exciting future together as we integrate our IP and platform with Sonos, knowing it shares our dedication to building great experiences for customers without asking them to sacrifice privacy,” explained Snips CTO Joseph Dureau.