A new Canadian technology company with links to a16z, Super.com, and the University of Toronto (U of T) has emerged to bring agentic AI to the home.
The news: Toronto- and San Francisco-based Orbits announced on Wednesday that it has closed nearly $2 million USD ($2.6 million CAD) in pre-seed funding to fuel the consumer launch of its AI household assistant. Silicon Valley’s a16z Speedrun, Toronto-based N49P, and Kitchener-Waterloo’s Garage Capital invested, alongside undisclosed angels, including an Anthropic employee. Orbits plans to use this funding to expand its user base, scale its infrastructure, and grow its team.
From the source: “There’s a booming market of tools to simplify your 9-to-5 and almost nothing for your 5-to-9,” Orbits co-founder and CEO Nomaan Ahmed said in a statement. “A household manager used to be something only wealthy families could afford; Bit is one every family can have.”
The context: Orbits, which bills itself as “the chief of staff for home,” was founded earlier this year by Ahmed, who previously worked in engineering roles at Super.com and Atlassian, and CTO Erik Tillberg, who conducted AI research at the U of T. As the market for AI-powered workplace productivity software booms, the startup has turned its attention to households, which Orbits claims remain “fundamentally unorganized.” Orbits has developed Bit, an AI household assistant for iOS and Android, that it claims can proactively coordinate with service providers, make authorized purchases, book dinner reservations, and gather home maintenance quotes.
Final thought: While many still yearn for or fear a future where humanoids might tackledo their physical household chores, agentic AI has already proven capable of autonomously handling basic home administrative tasks in the digital realm. The tech has enabled some users to automate boring-but-necessary work and spend more time with their families. Orbits claims Bit already helps users save hours every week managing their homes. Amid reports of agents going rogue, the industry will likely need to build greater consumer trust and implement the right guardrails if it hopes to achieve widespread adoption.
Feature image courtesy Orbits.