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10 Spanish Startups to Follow in 2026

16 Mar 2026

Nora Sobol

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La Cotorra presents the best Spanish startups of 2026.  Most of the startups are products based on artificial intelligence, such as Maisa AI or Murphy. Others are launching rockets into space, like PLD Space, or building “smart tractors.” We looked into what is happening on the Spanish tech scene this year.

This is a Spanish private aerospace company specialising in the design, production and operation of reusable launch vehicles. The company, based in Elche, Alicante, is currently a leader in the emerging commercial launch sector in Europe and develops rockets that provide independent access to space for small satellites.

The company has been around for 15 years. In 2023, it carried out the first successful launch of its suborbital rocket MIURA 1, effectively making PLD the first European private company to launch a rocket into space. In 2025, the company released its orbital flagship MIURA 5.

PLD Space is now considered a key player in the development of Europe’s independent space capabilities, something repeatedly highlighted by the European Space Agency and the European Innovation Council.

There are reviews and salary ranges for some positions on Glassdoor.
The reviews are mixed — management is sometimes criticised. Salaries listed include programmers (from $63,000 to $113,000 per year) and managing directors (from $200,000 to $364,000 per year).

This is a young Spanish-American startup founded in Valencia in 2024, with its headquarters in San Francisco. The company develops “accountable” AI agents for enterprise automation. According to the founders, their goal is to make AI-based workflows transparent, auditable and reliable in order to solve the frequent failures of pilot projects using generative AI in corporate environments. The founders emphasise that their product is not just typical AI bots but fully fledged digital employees.

The startup currently employs fewer than 50 people, but there are open positions on the website and LinkedIn.

This Spanish startup is a prominent representative of the ecotech sector, developing technologies aimed at reducing environmental impact, improving energy efficiency and promoting responsible use of natural resources.

Specifically, Matteco develops advanced components for the production of clean hydrogen. The startup creates catalysts, catalytic coatings and next-generation electrodes designed to make renewable hydrogen more efficient and accessible. In 2024, the company opened its first factory in Paterna, supplying products to electrolyser manufacturers in Europe, North America and Asia.

The startup has already received several prestigious ecotech awards, including the Decarb Connect Europe Next Gen Award and the Cinco Días Innovation Prize for University-Linked Enterprises.

Hiring at the startup is currently closed, with no published vacancies or Glassdoor reviews.

Theker develops adaptive AI robots for industry. Today’s conventional robots require complex programming and mostly operate in stable conditions, which creates difficulties when even minor changes or disruptions occur — situations where humans can quickly adapt but robots cannot. Theker builds robots that can adapt to environments and tasks using computer vision and deep learning, which should reduce the cost of automation. The startup’s main target markets are logistics, retail and manufacturing, where real-time adaptation without reprogramming is especially important.

This explains its major investors: the startup raised the largest seed round in Spain’s history — $21 million from Kibo Ventures and the retail giant Inditex. The startup is already working actively with industrial clients.

Murphy develops AI agents for debt collection. Today this industry is slow and expensive, requiring large call centres with relatively low efficiency. Murphy promises to replace operators with autonomous AI agents that communicate with debtors in more than 100 languages through calls, SMS and emails. According to the founders, this should increase debt recovery rates and reduce costs for companies. The main users of such a product are banks, fintech companies and telecom operators.

In less than two years, the startup has raised around $15 million in pre-seed and seed investments from Northzone, ElevenLabs, Lakestar and Seedcamp, positioning itself as next-generation infrastructure.

Biorce is an AI platform designed to accelerate clinical drug trials. It aims to optimise the years-long research process for pharmaceutical companies. According to the company, its system — based on more than half a million studies — helps design and conduct trials faster.

This product could reduce the cost of drug development and speed up the launch of new medicines on the market. Biorce’s key difference from existing solutions is its large clinical database and AI-based protocol planning.

The young startup has already raised €8.5 million from investors including Norrsken VC, YZR Capital and Mustard Seed Maze. The company plans to expand to the United States, as it has already entered the European market.

Orbio is not just a product that helps HR teams automatically filter candidates — it essentially acts as HR itself. The platform is an AI-based workforce management system designed for enterprises and large companies. The startup develops autonomous AI agents that automate all HR processes, from hiring and onboarding to employee sentiment analysis and retention.

The AI agent will be able to independently screen, interview and manage candidates and employees in order to “optimise work, track employee wellbeing and eliminate human bias in key decisions.”

The startup raised €7.6 million in its first year.

Omnia is a platform that helps brands become visible in AI search. The tool analyzes what questions users ask AI systems, how brands appear in chatbots and which sources are cited there. AI agents then generate brand content and place it in the databases used by these models. In other words, the product mainly targets marketing and growth teams. The founders promise to replace analysts and automate the process.

The startup has already raised €3.5 million in pre-seed funding from Visionaries Club, KFund, Baobab Ventures and business angels, and counts companies like Personio and ElevenLabs among its clients.

This is not a software product but a physical one — something relatively rare today. Voltrac builds an autonomous electric tractor robot designed to solve the shortage of workers in the agricultural sector.

The robotic tractor is meant to operate without a driver and adapt to different crops and climates. According to the founders, this should reduce costs for farmers and increase yields.

The uniqueness of Voltrac, according to the company, lies in the fact that it is designed as a software-defined vehicle controlled by AI. The product should learn through reinforcement learning and independently optimise agricultural processes.

The company has already raised €2 million from FoodLabs and Antler. The startup is currently preparing for its first deliveries and a new funding round.

Another AI platform for offices. The startup is developing a system intended to become something like a “single brain for a company” by connecting all of its data sources. Today, documents and data in most companies are scattered across dozens of platforms: Google Docs, Notion, CRM systems, Excel, BI tools, Slack, email and more. Cala aims to unify them.

According to the developers, the platform will connect to a company’s various systems and collect internal data — documents, reports, financial metrics, client data, deals, tasks, communications and product metrics — while also pulling external data such as market information, competitors, news and research. It then links everything together to create both a comprehensive database and a personalised corporate AI agent. However, this raises the question of how safe it is to give an AI-based system such broad access to all company data.