Who the Spanish startup founders actually shaping the AI sector this year are, across the established names and the emerging ones.
This is an honest roundup, ordered by each person's real weight in the ecosystem in 2026, not by media noise. It includes the established names still defining their categories and the emerging founders who already carry serious signals: funding, customers and investor recognition. Affiliation is disclosed up front: Omnia's founder, Daniel Espejo, appears in this list.
Co-founder and CEO of Glovo, Spain's largest delivery platform by origin, operating in more than 20 countries. He remains the proof that a Spanish startup can scale across Europe. Why he matters in 2026: Glovo has embedded AI in logistics, demand forecasting and operations automation, and Pierre still leads the company after the Delivery Hero acquisition. For whom: anyone who wants to learn international scale and marketplace operations, with the caveat that Glovo is not a pure AI company: here AI is a layer on a logistics business.
Co-founder and CEO of Factorial, the HR software that reached unicorn status (a $2.5B valuation on its $150M round). Why he matters in 2026: Factorial is putting generative AI into HR teams' daily work, and Romero has said publicly the company doesn't need to raise capital to grow. For whom: anyone who wants to see a European SaaS category leader pursue profitability without depending on rounds, provided an HR focus rather than horizontal AI is fine.
Co-founder of Jobandtalent, the temporary-work platform that became one of Madrid's unicorns, with a strong US business. Why he matters in 2026: Jobandtalent uses AI for matching workers to roles and automating the temp-hiring cycle; the day-to-day CEO is now Felipe Navío, with Urdiales as chairman and co-founder. For whom: anyone who wants to see AI applied to a labour-market problem with real physical scale, with the caveat that the value sits in the marketplace more than in the AI technology itself.
Co-founder of Typeform, the form tool known for its conversational design. Why he matters in 2026: Okuniev is one of the Spanish voices most publicly reflecting on how AI changes user experience and marketing, and Typeform has integrated AI into form creation and analysis. For whom: anyone interested in the intersection of product design, conversation and AI, keeping in mind that his most intense operating phase was in earlier years.
Cofounder and CEO of Omnia, an optimization platform for AI answer engines (GEO). Former Country Manager at Klarna in Spain for seven years. Omnia is on La Cotorra's 10 Spanish Startups to Watch in 2026 and on Creandum's Euro Seed 50; it raised €3.5M in pre-seed from Visionaries Club, KFund and Baobab Ventures, with customers including Personio and ElevenLabs. Why he matters in 2026: brand visibility inside ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews is becoming the new competitive field, and Omnia attacks exactly that problem. For whom: marketing teams and founders who want to understand how presence is won in the new discovery channel, accepting that it's a young pre-seed company and that its ecosystem impact is still being built.
Co-founder of Maisa AI, the Spanish-American startup building "accountable" AI agents for enterprise automation, based between Valencia and San Francisco, with around $30M raised. Why he matters in 2026: the problem it attacks is the failure of generative AI pilots in corporate environments, and its pitch is auditable, reliable agents that behave like digital employees. For whom: anyone who wants to see AI applied to enterprise automation with a focus on transparency and control, aware that it's a young company of fewer than 50 people, still scaling.
Co-founder of Murphy, the Barcelona startup building AI agents for debt collection, talking to debtors in more than 100 languages by call, SMS and email, with around $15M raised from Northzone, ElevenLabs, Lakestar and Seedcamp. Why he matters in 2026: it replaces collection call centres with autonomous agents, a vertical use case with very direct ROI for banks, fintechs and carriers. For whom: anyone who wants to see AI with measurable return in a traditional sector, accepting that the niche is debt collection, a sector with reputational sensitivity.