Press release

Audioburst Announces Additional $10M Investment, Strengthens Strategic Partnerships with Dentsu and Hyundai

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Audioburst announced today two new strategic and investment partnerships
totaling over $10M USD from Dentsu Inc. and Hyundai Motor Company in
conjunction with existing investors. The next-gen voice-search company
plans to build unique advertising and in-car voice-based experiences
with the two leading brands. Audioburst also announced plans to formally
launch in the Japanese market at the end of 2019 with Japanese language
capabilities.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190422005104/en/

Audioburst Personalized Playlist In-Car (Photo: Business Wire)

Audioburst Personalized Playlist In-Car (Photo: Business Wire)

“The investments signal an industry acknowledgment for consumer demand
of voice-based experiences, and Audioburst’s unmatched ability to
deliver that technology,” said Amir Hirsh, Co-Founder and CEO,
Audioburst. “It also provides us the ability to expand and expedite our
technology offering, and tap into a larger ecosystem of investors and
partners in the car, media, advertising and technology spaces.”

Dentsu, the world’s largest agency brand, believes it’s necessary to
create intelligent, audio-based advertising solutions for this rapidly
growing market. As part of the partnership, Dentsu will work closely
with Audioburst to build a new market for personalized audio as an
effective advertising channel for brands in Japan.

“Personalized advertising in the radio space has been limited to-date.
In addition, the emergence of voice-activated services and audio content
have provided a rapidly growing advertising opportunity for our
clients,” said Hideki Ishibashi, Managing Director of Dentsu Innovation
Initiative. “Partnering with Audioburst allows us to offer our global
clients a solution backed by millions of pieces of content and user
metadata, and a powerful understanding of listeners’ interests.”

For Hyundai, the $5M investment also includes plans to accelerate the
development and deployment of the next generation infotainment system
with Audioburst’s personalized audio search, playlists and Deep
Analysis API
. This will provide consumers with an engaging,
screen-free and original-voice experience, and Hyundai with an in-depth
understanding of the content being searched for and enjoyed in real-time.

“At Hyundai, our mission is to have our cars connected by 2020 and
provide our customers with the best possible in-car experience,” said
Dr. Yun-seong Hwang, Vice President of Hyundai Motor Company.
“Partnering and investing in Audioburst ensures we will lead the charge
in a data-driven first class audio experience.”

Today’s investments bring Audioburst’s current funding to $25M. Dentsu
and Hyundai are joining other strategic investors including Samsung
Ventures, Nippon Broadcasting Inc. and Advanced Media Inc.

About Audioburst:

Audioburst is powering personalized, next-gen listening experiences with
audio bursts. Pulling from talk radio and podcasts, Audioburst uses ASR
and NLP to listen, distill, contextualize and index the world’s largest
library of spoken word audio content into short form snippets.
Audioburst’s API enables companies to leverage audio content as a new
layer of user engagement and monetization while consumers enjoy audio
content discovery, recommendations, and a deep level of personalization
through textual search or voice interaction across all devices.

The Audioburst experience is already available on several interfaces
such as Audioburst
Search
, Alexa, and Google Home. Additionally, developers can access
the Audioburst
API
to tap into the robust Audioburst Content Library and introduce
a more dynamic and personalized listening experience for users across
in-car infotainment systems, voice assistants, IoT gadgets, and
smartphones. Audioburst’s solutions are integrated or being built into
products from brands including Samsung, LG, Bytedance, Nippon
Broadcasting System, Dentsu and Hyundai.

About Dentsu:

Dentsu is the world’s largest advertising agency brand. Led by Dentsu
Inc. (Tokyo: 4324; ISIN: JP3551520004), a company with a history of 117
years of innovation, the Dentsu Group provides a comprehensive range of
client-centric brand, integrated communications, media and digital
services through its ten global network brands—Carat, Dentsu, dentsu X,
iProspect, Isobar, mcgarrybowen, Merkle, MKTG, Posterscope and Vizeum—as
well as through its specialist/multi-market brands. The Dentsu Group has
a strong presence in over 145 countries and regions across five
continents, and employs more than 60,000 dedicated professionals. Dentsu
Aegis Network Ltd., its international business headquarters in London,
oversees Dentsu’s agency operations outside of Japan. The Group is also
active in the production and marketing of sports and entertainment
content on a global scale.
www.dentsu.com

About Hyundai:

Established in 1967, Hyundai Motor Company is committed to becoming a
lifetime partner in automobiles and beyond, offering a range of
world-class vehicles and mobility services in over 200 countries.
Employing more than 120,000 staff worldwide, Hyundai has sold about 4.6
million vehicles globally. Hyundai Motor continues to enhance its
product line-up with vehicles built on solutions for a more sustainable
future, such as NEXO — the world’s first dedicated hydrogen-powered SUV.

More information about Hyundai Motor and its products can be found at:
http://worldwide.hyundai.com
or http://globalpr.hyundai.com