Something unusual is happening in the world of work.
A startup founded just last year has raised $21 million to let AI agents interview, onboard, monitor, and support frontline employees — the workers who keep restaurants, hospitals, logistics networks, and retail stores running every day.
And some major companies are already using it.
The company is Orbio, and its latest funding round is a sign that the race to automate workforce operations is moving far beyond chatbots and office productivity tools.
The bigger question is whether frontline employment is about to enter a completely new era.
What Happened
On Monday, Orbio announced a $21 million Series A funding round led by Dawn Capital.
Founded in 2025 by Sergi Bastardas, Nacho Travesí, and Antonio Melé, the startup builds AI-powered software designed to help businesses manage frontline workers.
Bastardas previously spent a decade at Amazon and also worked at floriculture startup Colvin. During those years, he said one problem kept standing out: businesses often lacked efficient “human infrastructure” behind the scenes.
That observation became the foundation for Orbio.
Today, the company says customers include Poke and YUM! Brands, the parent company of Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC.
More notably, Bastardas says customers are moving beyond experimentation and into broader deployment of the platform.
And that is where things become interesting.
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AI Agents That Don’t Just Recruit
Many companies use software to track applicants.
Orbio wants to go further.
The startup has developed AI agents named Maria, Daniel, and Claire that can perform tasks across an employee’s entire lifecycle.
Those responsibilities include:
- Interviewing candidates
- Assessing job fit
- Monitoring employee output
- Conducting daily check-ins
- Supporting onboarding processes
The company’s goal is to help businesses operate workforces more autonomously while still maintaining engagement with employees.
According to Bastardas, the agents are designed to continuously learn from workforce interactions.
For example:
| Workforce Activity | Potential Impact |
|---|---|
| Onboarding signals | Improve recruiting quality |
| Exit interviews | Refine hiring criteria |
| Engagement data | Identify retention risks |
Each piece of information feeds into the broader system, creating a feedback loop intended to improve workforce decisions over time.
A Real-World Example Is Already Emerging
One of Orbio’s most notable customer examples comes from behavioral health provider The Stepping Stones Group.
According to Bastardas, Orbio now runs the company’s full U.S. operation.
The result?
The company reports that 20% more candidates are making it through the hiring process and ultimately getting hired.
For businesses struggling with staffing shortages or recruitment bottlenecks, that kind of improvement is likely to attract attention.
But that’s only part of the story.
Why Investors Are Paying Attention
The frontline workforce represents one of the largest labor segments in the global economy.
Healthcare.
Retail.
Hospitality.
Logistics.
These sectors collectively employ billions of people.
Yet many workforce management processes remain surprisingly fragmented.
In some organizations, hiring and employee management still involve combinations of spreadsheets, emails, phone calls, and disconnected software systems.
Orbio believes AI can replace much of that complexity.
The company has now raised $26 million in total funding from investors including Dawn Capital, Visionaries, and 2100 Ventures.
The fresh capital will be used to hire talent and develop additional AI agents.
The Contrarian View
Not everyone sees workforce automation as an uncomplicated win.
Supporters argue that AI can reduce administrative burdens, speed up hiring, improve employee engagement, and help businesses operate more efficiently.
Critics, however, may question how comfortable workers will feel when AI systems become deeply involved in recruiting, performance monitoring, and day-to-day workplace interactions.
Those concerns are not addressed in Orbio’s announcement, but they are likely to remain part of the broader conversation as AI expands into workforce management.
The tension highlights a growing reality of the AI era:
Companies want more automation, while workers increasingly want transparency and trust.
How those priorities balance out could shape adoption across entire industries.
What Happens Next?
Orbio’s vision extends far beyond recruiting software.
The company is positioning AI agents as digital workforce operators capable of supporting employees from hiring through onboarding, engagement, and eventual departure.
For Bastardas, the opportunity is especially significant because frontline workers have historically received fewer technology tools than corporate employees.
“This will be [a] transformation for businesses, but also the workforce,” Bastardas said.
He pointed to the estimated 2.7 billion people working across healthcare, retail, logistics, and hospitality — many of whom do not even have corporate email addresses.
As AI investment continues flooding into enterprise software, Orbio is making a bold wager: that the next major AI revolution won’t happen in boardrooms.
It will happen on shop floors, in restaurants, in hospitals, and across the frontline jobs that keep the global economy moving.
Whether workers embrace that future as quickly as businesses do may become one of the most important workplace questions of the next few years.
Editorial Disclaimer: This article is based solely on publicly available information from the original source material. No facts, quotes, statistics, timelines, outcomes, or claims have been added, altered, or fabricated. Analysis and industry implications may evolve as new information emerges.