Orbio has raised $21M (£16M) in Series A funding led by Dawn Capital to automate hiring, onboarding, engagement, and retention for frontline workers. Customers include Yum! Brands, Adecco, Poke House, and AWWG. The company says its AI agents helped increase hiring conversion by 20% at The Stepping Stones Group.



Madrid-based HR technology startup Orbio has raised $21 million in Series A funding, as investors increasingly back AI-native platforms designed to automate workforce operations beyond traditional recruiting.

The round was led by Dawn Capital, with participation from existing investors including Visionaries. The new financing brings Orbio’s total funding to $26 million since its launch in 2025.

Founded by former Amazon and Colvin executive Sergi Bastardas alongside Nacho Travesí and Antonio Melé, Orbio is building an AI workforce platform focused on frontline industries such as healthcare, retail, logistics, hospitality, and customer service. The company aims to modernize workforce operations for an estimated 2.7 billion frontline workers globally, many of whom have historically been underserved by enterprise software.

Unlike conventional HR systems that primarily support administrative workflows, Orbio deploys AI agents across the entire employee lifecycle. Its agents can contact candidates, conduct interviews, assess candidate fit, guide onboarding, monitor employee engagement, identify retention risks, and gather feedback throughout employment.

The company has already secured enterprise customers across Europe, North America, and Latin America, including Yum! Brands, Adecco, AWWG, Poke House, and Atento.

According to Orbio, its platform is moving beyond pilot deployments and becoming embedded in core workforce operations. At The Stepping Stones Group, a behavioral healthcare provider, the company reports that 20% more candidates successfully progressed through the hiring process after implementing Orbio's AI-driven workflows.

"Our vision is not simply to automate recruiting," Bastardas said. "We are building an intelligent workforce operating system where AI agents continuously learn from every interaction across hiring, onboarding, engagement, and retention."

The platform’s architecture is designed around interconnected AI agents. Recruiting data feeds onboarding workflows, onboarding insights influence employee engagement strategies, and exit interview data helps refine future hiring criteria. This creates what Orbio describes as a continuous workforce intelligence loop.

The funding will support international expansion, particularly in the United Kingdom, where several enterprise customers are already implementing the platform. The company also plans to accelerate development of additional AI agents capable of handling increasingly complex workforce management tasks.

The investment reflects a broader shift occurring across the HR technology sector. While much of the industry’s attention over the past two years has focused on AI-powered copilots and productivity assistants for knowledge workers, a new wave of startups is targeting operational processes traditionally managed through fragmented systems, spreadsheets, phone calls, and manual coordination.

Orbio enters a competitive market that includes recruiting automation provider Paradox and frontline workforce management platform WorkJam. However, the company argues that its primary competition remains the legacy operating model itself.

That positioning appears to resonate with investors.

"What stands out about Orbio is the speed at which customers have completely rebuilt their operating models around it," said Henry Mason, Partner at Dawn Capital. "Some of the world's largest employers have embraced AI-first frontline workforce management with Orbio at the core."

For HR leaders, the rise of platforms like Orbio signals a significant evolution in enterprise AI adoption. Rather than simply assisting HR professionals, AI systems are increasingly becoming active participants in workforce operations, executing tasks traditionally handled by recruiters, coordinators, managers, and support teams.

The frontline workforce may ultimately prove to be one of the largest and most transformative AI opportunities in the global labor market. As organizations face ongoing labor shortages, retention challenges, and pressure to improve operational efficiency, AI-native workforce platforms are emerging as a new category within the future of work ecosystem.

Whether Orbio can become the defining platform in that category remains to be seen. But its latest funding round suggests that investors believe the future of workforce management may be increasingly agent-driven.