Orbits said it has closed nearly $2 million USD (about $2.6 million CAD) in pre-seed funding to expand the consumer launch of Bit, its AI household assistant. The Toronto- and San Francisco-based startup raised the round from the Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Speedrun fund, alongside N49P, Garage Capital and angel investors, including a team member at Anthropic.
Founded by CEO Nomaan Ahmed and CTO Erik Tillberg, Orbits positions Bit as a shared, intelligent layer for family operations that consolidates calendars, lists and communications and moves beyond planning to real-world execution. The funding will allow the company to expand beyond its early community of families, scale infrastructure and hire key talent.
“I grew up one of four kids with two busy parents who somehow made it all work. Looking back, I can see what they gave up to keep everything running, and that was a second full-time job that nobody signed up for,” said Nomaan Ahmed, co-founder and CEO. “There’s a booming market of tools to simplify your 9-to-5 and almost nothing for your 5-to-9. A household manager used to be something only wealthy families could afford; Bit is one every family can have.”
AI household assistant Bit: capabilities and security
Orbits says Bit can interact in-app, via text messages and beyond, and performs autonomous actions that include browsing the web, logging into accounts, making authorized purchases, booking dinner reservations, rescheduling appointments and collecting quotes for services such as a new roof or HVAC repairs. The company describes Bit as bridging the gap between planning and real-world execution, unlike standard AI agents that only generate schedules or to-do lists.
On security, Orbits states that all third-party account credentials are encrypted end-to-end and are never stored. The startup also highlights proactive household management features, such as texting family members reminders for chores and coordinating external service providers like babysitters.
“This capital and the support of world-class investors gives us the momentum to turn a clear, widespread consumer need into a category-defining product,” said Erik Tillberg, co-founder and CTO. “We are building an intelligent, shared layer for the home that evolves daily based on how our users live.”
“Orbits is rethinking one of the most overlooked parts of everyday life: the work it takes to keep a household running,” said Fareed Mosavat, Partner, a16z Speedrun. “AI is becoming incredibly capable, but much of the attention so far has focused on work and productivity. Nomaan and Erik, and Bit, are bringing that capability into the home to take on one of the hardest jobs out there: managing a household.”
Orbits said the founding team has prior consumer-scale experience: they previously grew a platform from inception to more than one million monthly subscribers and nine figures in ARR. Tillberg previously worked as an AI researcher at the University of Toronto; Ahmed has led teams across startups and large enterprises.
Orbits is available on the App Store and Google Play. To learn more or to install the app, visit https://tryorbits.com.
