Orbits raises $2 million to put an AI assistant in the household
What's the deal? OrbitsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a Toronto- and San Francisco-based startup, has closed nearly $2 million (about US$1.91M) in pre-seed funding to expand Bit, its AI household assistant. The round came from Andreessen Horowitz's (a16z) Speedrun fund, N49P, Garage CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and angel investors, including a team member at Anthropic.
What's the endgame? Orbits wants to give every family a household manager once reserved for the wealthy. Bit acts as a unified layer for family operations, consolidating calendars, lists, and communications while carrying out real-world tasks.
What can it do? Bit can browse the web, log into accounts, make authorised purchases, book dinner reservations, reschedule appointments, and collect quotes for jobs like a new roof or an HVAC repair. It also texts family members reminders and coordinates outside help such as babysitters. The company says third-party account credentials are encrypted end-to-end and never stored.
Who's behind it? Orbits was founded by chief executive officer Nomaan Ahmed and chief technology officer Erik Tillberg. The pair previously grew a consumer platform to more than one million monthly subscribers and nine figures in annual recurring revenue; Tillberg was an AI researcher at the University of Toronto.
Why now? Ahmed frames the gap as one the software industry has ignored. "There's a booming market of tools to simplify your 9-to-5 and almost nothing for your 5-to-9," he said.
What's the money for? The round lets Orbits expand beyond its early community of families, scale its infrastructure, and hire. Bit is available now on the App StoreDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and Google PlayDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →.
The signal: Consumer AI attention has centred on work and productivity, leaving the home largely untouched. "AI is becoming incredibly capable, but much of the attention so far has focused on work and productivity," said Fareed Mosavat, a partner at a16z SpeedrunDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → — a bet that the next frontier for autonomous agents is the household.
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
