Spanish AI workforce platform Orbio today announced a $21 Series A led by Dawn Capital, alongside existing investors including Visionaries.
80 per cent of the world's workforce operates on the frontlines of essential industries: the 2.7 billion healthcare workers, retail associates, warehouse operators, hospitality staff and logistics drivers who keep economies running.
The difference between a staffed shift and an unstaffed one directly impacts revenue, customer experience and operational performance. Yet most enterprise software built over the past two decades was designed for desk-based knowledge workers.
Frontline employees are often deskless, without corporate email addresses, and are reached through messaging and phone calls rather than software logins. As a result, frontline hiring and workforce management still relies heavily on fragmented manual processes, spreadsheets and large operational teams, consuming significant time and costing organisations billions every year.
Orbio is building an AI workforce platform designed for frontline industries. Its agents can conduct interviews, assess candidate fit and motivation, guide new hires through onboarding, monitor engagement and churn signals, and remain in contact with employees throughout their lifecycle - from first application through to tenure and exit.
For employers, this creates a fundamentally new operating model: the ability to engage and support frontline workforces 24/7 while delegating large parts of workforce operations to AI agents. The result is faster hiring, lower administrative burden, improved retention and a more resilient operational workforce.
"This is not a talent shortage problem, it's a talent allocation problem," said Sergi Bastardas, co-founder and CEO of Orbio.
"The people are there. The work is there. What's been missing is the ability to connect frontline workers with opportunities quickly, consistently and at scale." With Orbio, candidates can be contacted within seconds, onboarding can happen in hours rather than days, and employers can stay continuously connected with their workforce. The result is faster hiring, lower attrition and smoother operations, while workers get a better chance to start, stay and grow."
"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.
"In a matter of months, some of the world's largest employers have embraced AI-first frontline workforce management with Orbio at the core, replacing labour budgets in a permanent way."
Orbio already serves customers across Europe, the US and Latin America. Orbio already works with global enterprise customers including Poke House and YUM! Brands (which owns brands including KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut).
In the United States, Orbio also works with The Stepping Stones Group, a US behavioural health provider serving children with autism and other special needs. What started as a small pilot has grown eightfold and now runs across the company's entire US operations.
Orbio took over interview scheduling entirely on day one, freeing up the team that had handled it. 20 per cent more candidates make it through to a hire, and Stepping Stones' own managers say the calibre of those hires has improved. The share of candidates who book an interview has climbed from 65 per cent to 85 per cent, and candidate satisfaction sits consistently above 98 per cent.
The new capital will fund further expansion alongside continued development of Orbio's AI agent suite across the full employee lifecycle.