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Orby AI, a startup building a generative AI platform to automate repetitive and tedious enterprise work, announced today that it has raised $30 million in a Series A funding round. The company also unveiled its new “large action model” technology that powers its AI agents to learn and automate complex business processes.
“We are launching our Series A fundraise—it’s $30 million,” said Bella Liu, co-founder and CEO of Orby AI, in an interview with VentureBeat. “Alongside it, we’re also announcing our big platform technology. We call it a ‘large action model’ — if you can imagine, it’s like a GPT-type of model — it’s really, really big. The input is all the actions the model observes, and the output is the code you can use to automate the work.”
Orby AI’s generative AI platform aims to differentiate itself from traditional robotic process automation (RPA) solutions. “Traditional solutions are still mostly built based on rules. In real processes, there are just so many different scenarios, especially when the process becomes complex,” explained Liu. “What we do is fundamentally different because this is using foundation models, it’s generative AI powered, and we can actually automate very complex processes that are not just based on rules.”
Generative process automation: The next frontier in AI-powered productivity
The company is coining the term “generative process automation” to describe its new paradigm. Orby AI’s platform uses multi-modal inputs like screenshots, clicks, and keystrokes to train its large action models. The AI can then generate scripts and code to automate workflows, while still involving human employees for feedback and handling edge cases.
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Liu shared a customer example of Fortune 500 auditors using Orby AI to audit millions of employee expense receipts, which normally takes 10-15 minutes per receipt. “The auditor just needs to install Orby and show it what they do. With just one iteration, Orby can already create a workflow with code behind the scenes. When Orby is unsure about some really complex case, it will pop up a window to ask the human auditor for feedback.”
Investors bet big on Orby AI’s vision for enterprise generative AI adoption
The Series A funding will be used for continuous product development and go-to-market expansion. Orby AI is currently focused on serving large enterprise customers, with traction in industries like technology, insurance, consumer goods, and real estate. The company sees the most adoption in back-office functions like finance, accounting, HR and operations.
As generative AI continues to advance, solutions like Orby AI have the potential to dramatically improve efficiency and productivity for data-intensive enterprise workflows. By combining the power of large language models with grounded multi-modal inputs and human feedback, Orby’s approach points to a future where AI works closely alongside human employees to automate complex knowledge work.
However, as with any automation technology, companies will need to carefully manage the transition and potential impacts on jobs and roles. “I actually think this is going to create a lot more jobs,” said Liu. “When we automate work, it actually makes the human more valuable, because now the human has more leverage… they can do more.”
The $30 million in fresh funding suggests that investors are bullish on the enterprise applications of generative AI and Orby’s approach in particular. As more companies look to harness the technology, Orby AI aims to establish itself as a leader in AI-powered enterprise process automation.
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