Sonilo, a generative AI audio company that develops music and sound for videos, has raised $11 million in a funding round led by B Capital, with participation from Redpoint.
The company will use the funding to improve its AI models and computing systems, expand its presence across creator and developer platforms, and grow its music licensing business.
At the heart of Sonilo’s technology is its Sound World Model, an AI system that understands video content and creates matching music and sound effects. It looks at the timing, movement, and emotions in a scene to generate audio that fits the video.
Creators can use the platform by uploading a video, describing the type of sound they want in text, or combining both methods. Sonilo then generates a soundtrack that matches the video and is ready for commercial use. The company has developed its technology around the real needs of creators, drawing on its team’s experience building recommendation and AI generation systems for large platforms.
“Almost every audio-generation experience starts with a text prompt. You have to describe the music you want, line it up to the exact moments in your videos, and find the perfect sound effects which can take hours for one piece of content,” said Shawn Song, CEO and Co-Founder of Sonilo. “We built Sonilo to understand the visual story. You give us the footage, and Sonilo understands what’s happening frame by frame, including the pacing, emotion, and story, and generates music and sound effects that naturally fit the scene. We believe the future of video isn’t just about generating better pictures but making those worlds feel real through audio that fits perfectly.”
“We believe generative audio will become an essential part of the AI-native video stack. Sonilo stands out because its multimodal technology gives creators two ways to generate music and sound effects: describe what they want in text, or provide a video and let the model create audio that fits the scene,” commented Daisy Cai, General Partner at B Capital. “That model-native approach, combined with Shawn’s deep expertise in multimodal music generation and the team’s focus on the creator workflow, gives Sonilo the opportunity to define a new category in generative media. We’re excited to support the team as they build the audio layer for the next generation of video.”
Sonilo develops AI technology that creates music and sound effects for videos. Its platform allows creators, developers, and media companies to generate audio directly from video footage or text, creating soundtracks that match each video’s story instead of choosing from a library of existing sounds.
Based in San Francisco and backed by B Capital, Sonilo aims to give every video its own soundtrack. The company believes that when music matches a video’s story and emotions, it can make the viewing experience more engaging.
