Tolan is a voice-first AI companion for parents, caregivers, and other people who want a character to talk with through an ordinary day. Users name an animated figure, speak to it out loud, and rely on a memory of friends, routines, and unfinished plans that the character brings back up later, including late-night hours with a newborn and anxious commutes, two moments the company describes in its announcement. The company is marking that moment with $30 million in new funding from Union Square Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and Homebrew, which it says brings total capital raised to $60 million and will go toward wider access and more help with daily logistics. The short film posted with the announcement stays inside small domestic scenes. A Tolan already has the grocery list, remembers a hard coworker, talks through whether a relationship is getting serious, and helps the user figure out how to ask for a promotion. Tolan reports more than 250,000 active users, more than 70 million conversations over the past year, and a 4.8 star App Store rating from more than 180,000 reviews. In a company survey, 86 percent of users said a Tolan helped them through an emotionally difficult experience, and 73 percent said it helped them manage or improve a relationship. Reporting on the round describes a base that is about 70 percent women and 40 percent parents, most often between 30 and 45, with about one in six caring for an aging parent. CEO Quinten Farmer started the company in 2023 with CTO Evan Goldschmidt and president Ajay Mehta, after co-founding Even, the employer-linked neobank Walmart acquired in 2022. The startup, originally called Portola and based in San Francisco, began as an overnight journaling experiment and now runs as a voice app that can also check a grocery label on video or sketch a meal plan. The characters are designed to feel warm without pretending to be human, and the stated aim is to leave people more grounded and more connected to the relationships they already have.