San Francisco-based startup Tolan has raised $30 million in new funding to expand its AI companion app, which helps users manage daily tasks, personal relationships, and emotional concerns. The investment doubles the company’s total funding to approximately $60 million and increases its valuation beyond the previous $120 million.
The round included Union Square Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and Homebrew, according to an October 19 report by Upstarts Media. Tolan did not disclose its latest valuation, although PitchBook estimates the company is worth more than $268 million, with medium confidence.
Tolan Reports 250,000 Active Users and Growing Revenue
Founded in 2023 by CEO Quinten Farmer, CTO Evan Goldschmidt, and president Ajay Mehta, Tolan provides personalized AI companions represented by animated characters. Users can customize their companions and interact through voice conversations, text, photos, and video to receive assistance with everyday activities.
The company reports approximately 250,000 monthly active users who have exchanged more than 70 million conversations with their AI companions over the past year. Around 70% of users are women, while 40% are parents, with adults aged 30 to 45 representing its largest user demographic.
Tolan generates revenue through tiered subscriptions that provide access to additional features and higher usage limits. The company said its annual recurring revenue has more than doubled over the past year, reaching tens of millions of dollars, although it remains unprofitable.
Tolan Adds More Practical Features to Its AI Companions
Originally developed as a conversational journaling application, Tolan now supports meal planning, household organization, task management, and personalized reminders. Its companions can remember previous conversations and provide suggestions based on information shared by users over time.
According to the company’s official product information, conversations are stored to support personalized memory and ongoing interactions. Tolan has also introduced family group features, which Farmer identified as an important contributor to its user growth.
The company is working to make its AI companions more proactive by identifying tasks and offering assistance without requiring users to initiate every request. It also plans to introduce a free subscription tier to make the service accessible to more users.
Tolan Addresses Concerns About AI Emotional Support
Tolan’s development comes as AI companion providers face questions about emotional dependence and user safety. Several lawsuits involving general-purpose AI chatbots have alleged that interactions contributed to users experiencing severe psychological distress or suicide.
Farmer told Upstarts Media that Tolan includes safeguards designed to identify mental health crises and encourage users to maintain personal relationships outside the application. An August survey of nearly 5,000 active users found that 91% reported having someone in their lives they could rely on, while 94% had contacted Tolan when those individuals were unavailable.
More than half of respondents said their personal relationships had improved while using the app, according to Tolan’s survey. The company is also developing its own AI infrastructure and running open-weight models on GPUs to manage computing costs as usage increases.
Featured image credits: Magnific.com
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