Interview with Teo Redondo, Director of Innovation at Aunoa: “Funding from CDTI Innovación and FEDER funds allows us to join international consortia and open new markets with large-scale projects such as SafeRoute-6G”
Aunoa Software is committed to innovation in artificial intelligence applied to connected mobility through SafeRoute-6G, a project aimed at improving road safety using 6G technology. Supported by CDTI Innovación and European FEDER funds, the initiative positions the Valencia-based company as the only Spanish partner in an international consortium of 26 organizations, strengthening its technological and global projection.
Aunoa Software was founded in 2019 with a vision that was still uncommon in the conversational software landscape: to develop its entire technology stack in-house, without relying on external models, and to maintain a strong R&D core as its main growth driver. Five years later, the company has consolidated its position in the artificial intelligence sector—particularly in NLP—and now participates in multinational technology consortia in strategic areas such as network security, digital resilience, and connected mobility. Among these projects, SafeRoute-6G stands out, an initiative under the Eureka Celtic-Next programme in which Aunoa is the only Spanish partner and contributes its AI expertise to enhance road safety in future infrastructures.
Teo Redondo, the company’s Director of Innovation, explains: “At Aunoa, we always knew that our competitive strength depended on continuous research, even before the market started paying attention to AI with its current intensity. Back in 2019, we were already determined to build our own models, especially for Spanish and co-official languages, because there was a clear gap in the European technology ecosystem.” This early commitment enabled the company to scale quickly. It found market traction even in 2020—“a year that was commercially dramatic for many companies in the sector”—and from there grew its customer base in Spain and Latin America, driven by conversational solutions capable of operating across multiple languages and contexts.
Today, Aunoa works with clients across a wide range of sectors, including logistics (GLS), water and energy management (Global Omnium), environmental management and recycling (Ecoembes), retail and e-commerce (Druni), financial institutions (Caja Rural), telecommunications (Movistar Mexico), and public administrations, with city councils such as Valencia, Oviedo, and Cartagena. International business already accounts for more than 30% of its revenue. The company currently exceeds €1 million in annual turnover, while continuing to invest heavily in proprietary technology.
Growth accelerated further in 2025, when Aunoa created a dedicated innovation department that now includes four researchers—with plans to double the team in 2026—and stepped up its involvement in high-impact technology projects. This progress has been supported by a firm strategy of allocating between 10% and 18% of annual revenue to R&D, an exceptional effort for a company of its size and a clear reflection of its long-term vision. It is within this context that SafeRoute-6G emerges as one of the most ambitious scientific and operational challenges the company has faced.
“The overall objective of SafeRoute-6G is to improve road safety infrastructure and services through 6G technology,” Redondo explains. The project is rooted in an unavoidable reality: the rise of connected and autonomous vehicles, increasingly dependent on real-time data. These vehicles require intelligent infrastructures capable of interacting instantly with sensors, cameras, radars, communication systems, and urban management platforms.
“The automotive industry is moving towards autonomous vehicles of all types and sizes, and that demands a technological infrastructure—both terrestrial and satellite-based—capable of responding under adverse weather conditions or in high-density traffic scenarios,” he notes. This is where the leap to 6G technologies makes sense: higher bandwidth, lower latency, and the ability to integrate multimodal information from highly diverse sources.
SafeRoute-6G will run from 2024 to 2027 with a total budget of nearly €8 million, of which Aunoa will execute €285,000. The consortium comprises 26 organizations from countries including Austria, Finland, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Canada, South Korea, Turkey, and Spain. “We are the only Spanish participant, and that role carries significant symbolic and technical weight,” Redondo emphasizes.
The project will test 6G wireless communication technologies that are still far from the commercial phase. It will also integrate cooperative intelligent transport systems (C-ITS), virtual and augmented reality tools linked to digital twins, and methods for detecting and preventing cyber threats.
“Aunoa will contribute advanced AI algorithms and will validate technologies across three pilots focused on cybersecurity techniques,” says the Director of Innovation. These pilots will assess how AI can anticipate potential incidents, identify risk patterns, and deliver automated, real-time responses.
The technical complexity is considerable. “There isn’t a single challenge, but rather a combination of them, because the maturity level of the technologies involved varies enormously,” Redondo acknowledges. Many current road safety systems rely on classical machine learning models that are effective but limited: “They are reactive models, based on periodic monitoring, with little true predictive capability and difficulty handling unstructured, visual, or multimodal data.”
The real transformation comes with multimodal models capable of simultaneously analysing text, images, LiDAR data, radar signals, and advanced sensor information. “An intelligent agent can integrate weather conditions, traffic camera images, vehicle data, and radar signals in real time to build a complete situational picture—something that becomes essential when conditions deteriorate due to snow, fog, or heavy rain.”
SafeRoute-6G brings together companies and technology centres from eight countries, representing both an organizational and scientific challenge. Redondo points out that, despite the complexity, there is strong prior collaboration among participants: “Many of the project’s premises stem from gaps identified in previous initiatives, which made it possible to structure a balanced and highly complementary consortium.”
Within the project, Aunoa leads the work package responsible for collecting information from 12 test sites distributed across different countries. These real-world scenarios will enable validation and integration of the developed technologies. “It’s a fundamental work package, because the pilots and final use cases depend on it,” Redondo explains.
Participation in international programmes is a key part of the company’s growth strategy. “Our team has extensive experience in innovation projects funded by CDTI Innovation and international programmes, which greatly facilitates coordination and technical management.”
While road safety is the project’s primary objective, SafeRoute-6G also incorporates a strong energy sustainability component. Some pilot sensors include next-generation baseboards and chips with extremely low power consumption. “There are devices whose batteries are designed to last more than 10 years, and some of the planned antennas operate with ultra-low consumption levels that allow them to be powered by small solar panels.”
In addition to reducing energy requirements, the project includes satellite communications, which reduce cabling needs and relieve pressure on terrestrial networks. “Sustainability is not an add-on—it is built into the design phase,” Redondo stresses.
Research initiatives of this scale require significant investment and a financial ecosystem capable of absorbing high technological risk. “CDTI Innovation acts as the funding body for the Eureka Celtic-Next programme, in this case through European FEDER funds. For Aunoa Software, this support makes it possible to address development areas we could not previously consider, and without it, we probably wouldn’t have been able to take part in a project of this magnitude,” says Redondo.
He adds that such funding is essential for deeply innovative companies: “Traditional financing is very difficult to obtain for projects of this disruptive nature. European funding allows us to participate in international consortia, open new markets, and connect with partners—such as those in Turkey or South Korea—that would otherwise have been impossible to collaborate with.”
SafeRoute-6G is not an isolated case within Aunoa’s strategy. The company is involved in other European and national projects focused on multimodal AI, digital resilience, and language models trained on proprietary infrastructure. Technological sovereignty is a central pillar.
“We believe Europe needs genuine technological independence, from language models to computing infrastructures. Our research lines reflect that vision: multimodal models, intelligent agents, neuro-symbolic AI, applied robotics, and, of course, efficient retraining techniques that reduce energy consumption.”
This vision is also reflected in projects such as ZAHARA, SUSTAINET_guardian, and initiatives supported by IVACE, where Aunoa is working on more efficient, secure models with less dependence on external platforms.
The company already generates 32% of its sales internationally, particularly in Latin America, and is currently in negotiations in Canada, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates. According to Redondo, participation in projects like SafeRoute-6G has significantly strengthened this international projection: “It opens doors, positions you at the technological frontier, and connects you with very different ecosystems. For a Spanish AI company, that opportunity is extraordinary.”
Looking ahead, Aunoa plans to continue growing through a model that combines business and applied science. “AI is advancing very quickly, and we know we have to move just as fast,” Redondo concludes. “SafeRoute-6G is a key part of that strategy because it forces us to operate at the edge of what is currently possible and prepares us for what lies ahead.”
The Centre for the Development of Technology and Innovation (CDTI E.P.E.) is the innovation agency of Spain’s Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. Its mission is to promote technological innovation within the business sector, enabling Spanish companies to transform scientific and technical knowledge into globally competitive, sustainable, and inclusive growth. In 2024, under a new strategic plan, CDTI provided more than €2.3 billion in support to Spanish companies and startups.
Más información:
Web: www.cdti.es
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