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After Sergi Bastardas\u2019 decade at Amazon and floriculture startup Colvin, one thing always stood out\u00a0 \u2014 the feeling that there wasn\u2019t enough efficient \u201chuman infrastructure\u201d to manage the workers behind the scenes. He took this feeling and, in 2025, alongside his co-founders Nacho Traves\u00ed and Antonio Mel\u00e9, launched Orbio<\/a>, an enterprise startup that helps businesses manage frontline workers \u2014 using AI agents, of course.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Monday, the company announced a $21 million Series A in a round led by Dawn Capital. The startup says its customers already include Poke and YUM! Brands (owners of Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC), to onboard and manage their frontline employees. Bastardas said customers are progressing from using Orbio in pilot to now fully deploying the software.\u00a0As an example, he said that at behavioral health provider The Stepping Stones Group, Orbio now runs the company\u2019s full US operation, with 20% more candidates making it through to get hired<\/p>\n The Orbio agents (Maria, Daniel, and Claire) can interview candidates, assess fit, monitor employee output, and conduct daily check-ins throughout an employee\u2019s work lifecycle. The goal is to help businesses run their workforces autonomously, Bastardas said, adding that businesses will be able to engage and support the frontline workforces while also delegating some workforce operations to AI agents.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEach 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,\u201d he continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n Orbio competes with several startups \u2014 such as Paradox, which helps automate recruiting, and WorkJam, which helps manage frontline employees.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bastardas considers Orbio\u2019s biggest competitor to be the legacy approach, however, to how frontline workers are managed (especially in industries like healthcare, retail, and logistics) \u2014 a fragmented process that sometimes still involves spreadsheets and phone calls. All of this is changing rapidly, however, in the age of AI. Orbio has raised $26 million in funding to date from investors, including Visionaries and 2100 Ventures. Bastardas said the fresh capital will be used to hire and develop more AI agents.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis will be [a] transformation for businesses, but also the workforce,\u201d Bastardas said. \u201cThe 2.7 billion people who keep healthcare, retail, logistics, and hospitality running, most of whom don\u2019t have a corporate email address, have previously got nothing. This is their AI moment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n