Tolan, a San Francisco startup building AI companions aimed at everyday users rather than tech professionals, has raised $30 million in new funding from Union Square Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Homebrew, doubling its total capital raised to date, according to Upstarts Media.
The company declined to disclose its new valuation but said in a press release the round represents a significant step up from a previous mark of $120 million, according to PitchBook data.
Founded in 2023 by Quinten Farmer, formerly chief executive of employer neobank Even which sold to Walmart in 2022, Tolan lets users create a named, customisable AI character that builds a persistent memory of conversations over time.
Around 70% of its 250,000 monthly active users are women, 40% are parents, and one in six is actively caring for an ageing relative, a demographic profile that sits some distance from the productivity-focused AI tools dominating venture capital headlines.
Annual recurring revenue has more than doubled year on year and sits solidly in double-digit millions, with net user retention improving 115% after 30 days in-app.
The new funding will be used to expand use cases and introduce a free tier for the first time, widening access beyond users currently paying between $10 and $200 per month.
Tolan has progressively moved away from OpenAI's models and now runs open-source models on its own GPU infrastructure to manage inference costs.
The company's pitch to investors is straightforward: people want one AI they trust, not many agents they tolerate.
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