NEW YORK, NY — May 27, 2021 — Today, Orbiit, a matchmaking engine powering curated community connections at scale announced it has raised a $2.7 million round led by Bread and Butter Ventures with participation from new investors High Alpha Capital, LAUNCHub Ventures and Company VC. The round also included participation from existing investors Founders Fund, which led Orbiit’s $1M pre-seed round, Acceleprise and several strategic angel investors.
“We are thrilled to be working with partners who share our belief that the best communities are all about trust that's based not only on shared experiences but also the connections between each other,” said Orbiit CEO and Co-Founder Bilyana Freye. “Tailored 1:1 connections that allow members to discuss difficult topics, be vulnerable and share learnings with one another. Those 1:1 connections are the hardest to execute, but when you start investing in them, with the help of Orbiit, you see engagement feeding into all other initiatives and a vibrant, active community that truly delivers on the promise to its members.”
By handling the communications, matching, scheduling, feedback collection and analytics for 1:1 connections, Orbit has built an efficient way for communities to learn and network. Orbiit works with organizations looking to increase engagement and knowledge-sharing in a curated and scalable way. Existing clients report an average Net Promoter Score of 87, and report tangible outcomes for the participating talent and increased sense of belonging to their respective community.
“Both through my work launching and building Google for Startups and now investing in early stage startups and communities, this age old question of how to leverage technology at scale to drive meaningful connections across communities both internal to an organization and across the globe is a problem we’ve been actively seeking a solution to for a decade,” said Bread and Butter Ventures Managing Partner Mary Grove. “Orbiit brings the perfect blend of tech-enabled software with human curation to create strong connections and provide insights back to community managers. In today's world, we see more desire for meaningful 1:1 connections and believe that Bilyana and Luuk are the perfect team to drive this mission forward.”
The platform is already being used in major startup communities at True Ventures, GGV and Lerer Hippeau; private networking groups such as Dreamers & Doers; and customer communities, like the 3000+ CFO community run by fintech leader Spendesk. Orbiit has connected thousands of leaders since launching in October 2020, across the world's leading tech companies and Fortune 500 brands.
“As the world changes at an unprecedented pace, being seamlessly connected to fellow operators is the fastest and most powerful way to calibrate your approach to shared challenges,” said Founders Fund Principal Delian Asparouhov. “We see Orbiit as a key platform for peer learning within companies and communities, unlocking untapped knowledge through curated matchmaking.”
The capital will be used to build out the Orbiit product and engineering team, led by Co-Founder and CTO Luuk Derksen, further improving matching capabilities through machine learning and building key integrations and new connection formats. The company is also hiring in sales and customer success support. To learn more about Orbiit and open careers, visit orbiit.ai/careers.
