New UK startup raises $12M for personal AI agents with long-term memory

London-based Convergence has raised $12mn in pre-seed funding to further develop its personal AI agents, which can learn using long-term memory much like humans do.

Behind the startup are machine learning engineers Marvin Purtorab (CEO) and Andy Toulis (CTO).

The duo met at Shopify while working on recommender systems and AI assistants. In 2023, they joined enterprise AI startup Cohere. In April 2024, they founded Convergence, assembling a team of Google DeepMind, Meta, and OpenAI alumni.

Convergence’s Proxy AI agent has been developed for both employees and consumers.

For employees, it can automate administrative and repetitive tasks and workflows to save time and increase productivity. For consumers, it can assist with everyday activities, such as booking trips or ordering groceries.

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According to the startup, Proxy’s differentiating factor lies in its ability to acquire skills by using long-term memory and continuous learning.

“Imagine an agent that keeps growing and learning whenever you teach them something new,” Purtorab said.

“The key to our approach is the ability for Proxy to learn and memorise tasks on the job, remembering them for the long term and being able to use its memories to extrapolate to new tasks — just as a person would.”

To enable this result, Convergence’s AI technology is built on Large Meta Learning Models (LMLMs).

LMLMs are a new generation of advanced machine learning models that are trained to learn how to learn. In essence, they’re designed not just to master specific tasks, but also to acquire the general skills that can help them adapt to new tasks.

This could also be helpful in applications ranging from personalised medicine to adaptive education and natural language understanding.

Convergence is launching its Proxy agent in beta today, with a limited number of spots available. As of today, the company is also coming out of stealth mode.

With the fresh capital, the startup will develop new models to power its Proxy assistants. London-based VC firm Balderton Capital led the funding round with participation from Salesforce Ventures and Shopify Ventures.