One of the main use cases is as instructors in workforce training videos. For instance, executives at Henkel’s haircare brand Schwarskopf found that their hairdressers were going to TikTok to learn best practices. “They needed a training platform that was engaging and could be controlled,” Murphy said. “That’s where Anam came in.” 

While AI agents have been on the rise in the last year, the initial idea for Anam stemmed from Murphy’s childhood obsession with The Sims, a video game where users customize digital characters. She officially founded the company in 2023 to bring her version of digital characters to life. Last week, Anam closed a $9 million seed round led by Redpoint Ventures, bringing their total funding to $11 million. The funding will go toward Anam’s product engineering team and go-to-market strategy, as well as the company’s expansion to the U.S.

Murphy and Carr met while working together at an AI video startup Synthesia—which is currently valued at some $2 billion—where Murphy worked on the go-to-market strategy and Carr worked as a research engineer.

The pair sought to design a personalized AI experience beyond the traditional chatbot or text to video interaction. While most AI avatar startups rely solely on mouth movements to replicate human interaction, Anam’s technology renders every pixel of the human face to hold a natural conversation in real-time. The avatars blink, raise their eyebrows and move their shoulders with less than a second of reaction time. 

“I’ve never written a line of code in my life which is very atypical for a generative AI founder,” Murphy said. “But I am very commercial and I think that is how we have been able to build a business that is technical but still drives value.” 

Anam recently launched a feature called “One Shot,” which creates an AI persona from only a picture that can hold real-time conversation and respond to prompts. However, this technology is currently a private tool to mitigate the ethical risks of misuse. 

“It’s incredible technology but also dangerous if found in the wrong hands,” Murphy said. “Our enterprise customers are the only people that have access to it because we want to put up the right guardrails before it is open to the public.” 

Despite the growing AI market, Anam doesn’t view other AI startups as their competition, but humans themselves.

“Our vision is to have AI personas that feel indistinguishable from real life,” Murphy said. “We need to create personas that feel even more engaging and realistic [than human beings].” 

More next week, 

Alexandra, Alex and Zoya 

-Bilt Rewards, the credit card startup that lets users earn points on rent payments, this month announced $250 million in additional funding. The round was led by General Catalyst and GID and brought Bilt’s valuation to $10.75 billion. According to billionaire founder and 30 Under 30 alum Ankur Jain, the startup is on track to surpass $1 billion in revenue by the first quarter of 2026. Bilt also announced a major shift in its operations, parting ways with Wells Fargo—its previous card issuer—and partnering with Cardless, the fintech behind credit cards for companies like Coinbase.

-Under 30 Hollywood & Entertainment alum Sydney Sweeney is adding another title to her resume (and one we, at Forbes, love most): Founder. The Euphoria star is reportedly set to launch a lingerie brand, backed by Jeff Bezos, Lauren Sánchez, and Coatue’s Ben Schwerin. Sweeney is no stranger to the world of fashion, having served as an ambassador or campaign face for a range of fashion and beauty brands, including Tory Burch, Miu Miu and Guess.

-Every wonder what it’s like to be a summer intern in New York City? These students tell all: Some are splitting rent with roommates to make (often unpaid) life in one of the most expensive cities possible; others are super-commuting from Connecticut. There’s an occasional outing to a TikTok hot spot for food, drinks and, of course, pilates. But mostly, they’re “trying to level up [their] game” and “prove to [themselves] that [they] could maneuver the real world.” (The New York Times)

-Big news in the newsletter business! 2017-founded newsletter platform Substack announced this week a $100 million Series C. The round was led by BOND and Peter Chernin’s The Chernin Group (TCG), and big names participated, too: a16z, Klutch Sports’ Rich Paul, and Skims CEO Jens Grede. The platform has more than 5 million paying subscribers (Variety)

Have some news for us? Send any updates to 30under30tipline@forbes.com.