A Madrid-based startup called Orbio has raised $21 million in a Series A funding round to expand its AI-powered platform for hiring, onboarding, and managing frontline workers — the hourly and shift-based employees who staff warehouses, retail stores, and similar operations.
According to TechCrunch, the round was led by Dawn Capital. Orbio uses AI agents to handle tasks that have traditionally required human HR staff: conducting interviews, walking new hires through onboarding, and ongoing workforce management.
The company was founded by Sergi Bastardas, who previously spent a decade at Amazon and at floriculture startup Colvin, according to TechCrunch. That experience working at scale with large hourly workforces appears to have shaped Orbio's focus — frontline workers represent a massive but often underserved segment when it comes to modern HR software.
Frontline roles — think delivery drivers, retail associates, and warehouse pickers — tend to have high turnover and fast hiring cycles. Automating the interview and onboarding process could save businesses significant time and cost, especially those that hire in large volumes.
The broader market for AI in HR is growing rapidly as companies look to cut administrative overhead and speed up talent pipelines. Orbio is betting that the specific needs of frontline employers — speed, scale, and simplicity — are distinct enough to warrant a dedicated solution rather than a general-purpose HR tool.
If AI can reliably compress the time between a job posting and a worker's first day on the floor, it could meaningfully shift how the global service economy finds and retains its workforce.