Akaio
Breaking New Ground in Scalable Innovation

The future belongs to organizations that can innovate at speed. Akaio makes that possible by making innovation a bold, fast and cost-effective AI-driven process.

For decades, organizations have treated innovation as a creative exercise rather than a disciplined system. Ideas are usually generated through brainstorming and backed by expensive market reports and consultant opinions. Despite the time and money invested, outcomes are uncertain, and concepts rarely advance to execution.

Akaio replaces this fragmented approach with an end-to-end innovation system that provides structure for how ideas are created, evaluated and executed. It combines company data, including financial and operational data, alongside innovation intent and profile, with external market data and proprietary algorithms to identify emerging macro and micro trends and evaluate their business impact.

The platform then converts these insights into future scenarios that guide product and service development and identify the capabilities needed to compete. It uses advanced clustering models to generate more than 2,400 idea pathways, uncovering opportunities that conventional approaches often overlook. It also connects strategy to execution by providing an detailed business case for each idea, and identifying co-creation and go-to-market partners from a global network of enterprises, startups and universities.

"Our platform is creating a blue ocean for innovation and changing how organizations innovate around the world," says Juan Manuel Gutiérrez, co-founder and CEO. A breakthrough in how organizations discover ideas and bring them to market. “We are building a global platform that helps companies innovate bolder, faster, and cost-effective,” he says. “We’ve proven it’s possible to go from idea to execution in weeks, not months.”

The practical and structured approach has made Akaio valuable across industries. Universities use it to build innovation cultures, enterprises to pursue growth, SMEs to gain strategic insight, and consulting firms to deliver results faster.

A Founders’ Vision: Father, Son, and First class Innovator

Akaio’s story is one of collaboration and shared vision. It was born from the combined experience of Juan Manuel Gutiérrez, a serial entrepreneur and executive with over three decades of experience in finance, technology, and media; his son, Alejandro Gutiérrez, an AI specialist from Boston; and Dr. Hitendra Patel, a globally recognized innovation strategist and founder of the Global Innovation Management Institute and IXL Center.

The idea took shape during a meeting at Venture Café Boston, a vibrant space for startups and entrepreneurs. The trio recognized a common problem: organizations were relying on intuition-based innovation practices in a world increasingly driven by data and artificial intelligence.

“Each of us brought a different lens,” says Juan Manuel. “Hitendra had the proven innovation methodology and access to large corporations and governs that seeking innovation, Alejandro had the AI perspective, and I brought the experience of scaling technology and business and make things happen in a timely and profitable manner. The power of Akaio comes from that intersection.”

Our platform is creating a blue ocean for innovation and changing how organizations innovate around the world.

From that discussion, the three co-founders envisioned a platform that could systematize innovation itself, making it bigger, bolder, faster and cost effective.

“I left all my other businesses and committed myself full time to building Akaio since 2023,” says Juan Manuel. “Innovation is in my blood. My values are intensity, innovation, and integrity — the three I’s that define both me and Akaio.”

For Juan Manuel, Akaio represents more than a business venture, it’s the culmination of a lifetime dedicated to creating new solutions. Before Akaio, he led innovative projects in consumer finance in the U.S. and finance, technology and media in Spain, earning awards for his creative ventures. His decades of experience shaped his conviction that innovation must be treated as a discipline, not a gamble.

With Dr. Patel’s 40+ years of innovation expertise and methodology as the backbone, the team built Akaio into a SaaS platform that organizations can deploy quickly without complex setup. The cost is comparable to hiring a single innovation professional, yet the platform delivers enterprise-scale insight and execution.

”Being chosen by the European Commission to lead AI4Engine is a milestone for us, and for responsible AI innovation across Europe.”

Identifying Dr. Patel was a crucial stepping stone for Akaio. “It was an instant collaborative bang, I could see innovation light up his eyes”, says Juan Manuel praising Dr. Patel’s global recognition and innovation prowess. “It brought our two families together”.

Just as importantly, Akaio ensures enterprise-level data protection. Operating within a secure, closed environment, it keeps financial, operational, and research data private so organizations can innovate boldly without compromising confidentiality. “We put our engineering trust on a strong pillar of Akaio’s development, Atif” says Juan Manuel. The current Head of the CIO Office for Akaio, Atif, has over a decade of transformative impact in the SaaS landscape and spearheaded core functionalities of what makes Akaio the platform of the future.

The founders’ conviction has attracted strong investor confidence. Akaio has already raised $3 million in funding to date, which supported two years of R&D and the launch of its first live platform version in 2025. Now, the company is raising an additional $3 million to accelerate its international expansion and scale its AI capabilities across new markets. Juan Manuel describes this phase as “moving from early traction to global growth.”

Proof in the Real World

Akaio’s combination of speed, scale, and security is already producing tangible results across industries.

In the fertilizer and agrichemicals manufacturing sector, OCP Nutricrops worked with Akaio to accelerate agricultural innovation. Through the platform, they developed the concept of drones that drop precise amounts of seeds, nutrients, herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides, replacing broad, wasteful spraying methods. The approach offers a more sustainable and efficient alternative that could reshape modern agriculture.

Telefonica, a telecommunications giant, partnered with Akaio across two ventures: they are to date using the platform for internal innovation pathways within the corporation, and they are using the tool not only to foment innovation for the 2,000 companies Telefonica consults, but also selling the platform directly as well.

That commitment to responsible progress also defines Akaio's work in the public sector. Under its parent company, Kyra Sunrise Spain, it plays an active role in AI4Gov-X (2025–2029), a European Commission program that applies AI to strengthen public administration and digital education across Europe. As task leader for AI4Engine, Akaio collaborates with universities, startups and policymakers to strengthen data-driven decisionmaking across more than 1,500 public institutions in Europe.

"Being chosen by the European Commission to lead AI4Engine is a milestone for us, and for responsible AI innovation across Europe," says Juan Manuel.

The collaboration underscores Akaio's broader vision that innovation should advance business performance while also strengthening education, public value and long-term sustainability.

Expanding a Global Ecosystem for Responsible Innovation

This vision has resonated globally. At the 42nd IASP World Conference on Science Parks and Areas of Innovation in Beijing, Akaio gained international attention by demonstrating how innovation can be achieved faster, smarter and at a fraction of the traditional cost. This was thanks to Dr. Josep Pique, Doctor on Ecosystems of Innovation and president of multiple global international associations for science parks and conferences. “Every time we jump on stage and show Akaio, it’s a guaranteed hit” says Juan Manuel.

Headquartered in Boston with offices in Madrid and Riad, the company now works with teams in more than 20 countries.

Its growth mirrors the results it creates for its clients. As it enters new markets and builds long-term partnerships, Akaio remains focused on turning innovation from uncertain experimentation into strategic value creation.