Tolan is an AI companion app from Portola, a San Francisco startup, that offers a customizable animated alien character as a friendly guide through life. Users name their alien, shape its appearance and voice, and talk with it mostly by voice about stress, interests, relationships, goals, and daily life. It is deliberately non-romantic, with a 'cool older sibling' persona, and it raised $30 million from Union Square Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and Homebrew in October 2026.
The companion builds ongoing memory from conversations, with a nightly process that condenses stored memories and reconciles contradictory information, so it remembers details without being told twice. Topic Tabs keep subjects together, from photos to current events, and it can react to uploaded images, check grocery labels by video, suggest meals, create reminders from things mentioned in conversation, and track daily check-ins. Users also design a shared planet together that develops over roughly 30 days.
Tolan is available on iPhone and Apple silicon Macs only, with no Android version, and is free to download with a limited trial before paid access; current plans are Lite at $11.99 and Plus at $24.99. It is built for young adults and anyone seeking non-romantic companionship and practical daily guidance, with over 250,000 active users reported in October 2026.
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