After a decade at Amazon and floriculture startup Colvin, Sergi Bastardas noticed something: the people who actually run the world’s warehouses, restaurants, and hospitals were being managed with the technological sophistication of a clipboard and a prayer. So in 2025, he and co-founders Nacho Travesí and Antonio Melé launched Orbio, an enterprise startup that helps businesses manage frontline workers - using AI agents, naturally, because it’s 2025.
On Monday, Orbio announced a $21 million Series A round led by Dawn Capital. The startup says its customers already include Poke and YUM! Brands (the proud owners of Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC), who use Orbio to onboard and manage their frontline employees. Bastardas says customers are moving from pilot programs to full deployment. At behavioral health provider The Stepping Stones Group, Orbio now runs the entire US operation, with 20% more candidates making it through to hire.
Orbio’s AI agents - named Maria, Daniel, and Claire, because naming them “HR-1,” “HR-2,” and “HR-3” would have been too honest - can interview candidates, assess fit, monitor employee output, and conduct daily check-ins throughout an employee’s work lifecycle. “Each agent generates data that feeds back into the others,” Bastardas explained, describing a closed loop where onboarding signals inform recruiting quality, exit interviews reveal why employees leave, and engagement data identifies retention risks. It’s like a nervous system, except made of software and lacking existential dread.
Orbio competes with startups like Paradox (automated recruiting) and WorkJam (frontline employee management), but Bastardas considers the biggest competitor to be the “legacy approach” - the fragmented process that still involves spreadsheets and phone calls in industries like healthcare, retail, and logistics. All of this is changing rapidly in the age of AI, which is Orbio’s cue to step in with a full suite of digital replacements.
Orbio has raised $26 million to date from investors including Visionaries and 2100 Ventures. Bastardas says the fresh capital will be used to hire more humans to develop more AI agents. “This will be a transformation for businesses, but also the workforce,” Bastardas said. “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.” Or, as it might be known: the moment when Maria, Daniel, and Claire start calling the shots.