GeekWire’s startup coverage documents the Pacific Northwest entrepreneurial scene. Sign up for our weekly startup newsletter , and check out the GeekWire funding tracker and venture capital directory .An array of Tolan animated AI companions. (Portola Image)The promise and potential of artificial intelligence to be more than just a disembodied voice or text bubble took another colorful step forward with the official launch of Tolan, an animated AI companion from a startup with roots in Seattle and a host of big-name tech backers.Portola is the company behind the alien creatures who are out to become our new virtual best friends. The startup’s co-founders include CEO Quinten Farmer of Seattle, who grew up on Whidbey Island, Wash.; CTO Evan Goldschmidt; and President Ajay Mehta, who grew up in Bellevue.Farmer is the co-founder and former CEO of Even, a venture-backed fintech startup that was acquired by Walmart in 2022 for $300 million. Goldschmidt was a founding engineer and CTO at Even.Portola raised $10 million in a seed funding round led by Lachy Groom, a former executive at Stripe who co-founded Physical Intelligence, an AI startup that raised $400 million from Jeff Bezos and others. Portola backers also include Nat Friedman (former GitHub CEO); Daniel Gross (ex-Apple AI); Amjad Masad (Replit CEO); Mike Krieger (Instagram co-founder); David Luan (OpenAI, Amazon); and others.The Tolan app, available on iOS, soft-launched in late 2024 and has already attracted 500,000 downloads among people looking for conversational companionship around everything from what to make for dinner, what to wear, how to study for an exam, and more.“I knew that the idea of a voice companion, and the technology to build such a thing, was all pointed in the right direction,” Farmer told GeekWire

It seems as if consumers can buy just about anything from Amazon. Now, you can add cars to that list. Can Amazon Autos become a go-to destination for car buyers, providing Amazon with a competitive edge in an area where Walmart has yet to establish a strong presence?. While Walmart does sell and even buy cars through its Carsaver partnership, the company still relies on third parties to handle the bulk of the transaction process. This leaves an opportunity for Amazon to take a more direct approach, leveraging its vast ecosystem and tech-driven conveniences to elevate the car-buying experience