Orbio raises $21M to automate hiring and onboarding for frontline workers
Orbio, a startup using AI agents to manage frontline workers, has closed a $21 million Series A funding round led by Dawn Capital.
Orbio, founded in 2025 by Sergi Bastardas (a former Amazon and Colvin employee) along with co-founders Nacho Travesí and Antonio Melé, has raised $21 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Dawn Capital. The company has developed AI agents—named Maria, Daniel, and Claire—that can interview candidates, assess fit, monitor employee output, and conduct daily check-ins throughout the employee lifecycle.
Customers already include Poke and YUM! Brands (owner of Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC) for onboarding and managing frontline workers. Bastardas noted that customers are moving from pilot to full deployment. For example, behavioral health provider The Stepping Stones Group now runs its entire US operation using Orbio, with 20% more candidates making it through to hiring.
Orbio aims to help businesses run their workforces autonomously, delegating some workforce operations to AI agents. “Each agent generates data that feeds back into the others: onboarding signals inform recruiting quality; exit interviews reveal why employees leave, which recalibrates hiring criteria; engagement data identifies retention risks,” Bastardas explained.
Competitors include Paradox and WorkJam, but Bastardas sees the biggest competitor as the legacy approach to managing frontline workers—often fragmented and reliant on spreadsheets and phone calls. To date, Orbio has raised $26 million from investors including Visionaries and 2100 Ventures. The fresh capital will be used to hire and develop more AI agents. Bastardas emphasized, “The 2.7 billion people who keep healthcare, retail, logistics, and hospitality running, most of whom don’t have a corporate email address, have previously got nothing. This is their AI moment.”
