Nieves Ábalos, the Linarense engineer who put Spanish at the forefront of the IA conversation – Linares28 – El diario digital de Linares

Nieves Ábalos Serrano, co-founder of Monoceros Labs, is a finalist in the III edition of the premios impulsados ​​por la Asociación Española de Startups Awards of the Asociación Española de Startups and Yellow agency, which honors the most outstanding entrepreneurs of 2024 in Spain. Your project has been instrumental in developing innovative solutions based on IA that allow companies to create more personalized and useful user experiences through advanced conversational interfaces and synthetic voices in Spanish.

From his first steps in the computer world, Nieves was passionate about artificial intelligence and conversational technology. After completing a master's degree in software development and specializing in dialog systems and natural language processing (NLP), Nieves led conversational IA initiatives in the innovation department at BEEVA (Grupo BBVA). In 2019, shortly after the launch of Alexa and Google Assistant in Spanish, he founded Monoceros Labs. This innovation research has focused on these platforms, making significant progress in creating conversational experiences, recognized from the start by Amazon as an outstanding company. “Our mission is to break down digital barriers through artificial intelligence and voice-based technologies,” Nieves commented. For his contributions, he has been recognized internationally as an Alexa Champion, an exclusive award given by Amazon. In addition to voice assistants and chatbots, Monoceros develops customized synthetic voices in common official languages ​​such as Spanish and Catalan. “My life revolves around the design and creation of technology that allows us to communicate with machines in a more responsible, useful and natural way,” affirms Ábalos.

Among the most prominent projects of Monoceros Labs are Alexa Skills for Alexa de Veo Veo, Pasapalabra for Atresmedia or Diana for Grupo Planeta or the creation of exclusive and customized synthetic voices for RTVE and PRISA. These innovations have been recognized with prestigious international awards such as Best New Audio and Sound Product from IBC Innovation and Social Impact Award 2023, TMBroadcast 2023 and INMA 2023. In addition, they launched Fonos, a SaaS platform aimed at content creators. To create material with Su propia voz en cualquier idioma, “Izar” uses preseñadas with IA, including la primera voz sintética en Andaluz.

Nieves is also an active advocate for the inclusion of women in the tech sector. In 2019, Women in Voice Congolese decided to take inspiration for their mission in Unidos and Spain. It is a global initiative that promotes the visibility and participation of women in the development of voice and multimodal interfaces. “Es un espacio donde todas sumamos, ayudamos visibilizar ya que se conozca tanto la professionals, como las mujeres professionales que trabajan en ella.” To see referents in a sector that is technologically based, to balance and re-record history in terms of balance, to create products for new perspectives,” adds Nieves Ábalos. In addition to his entrepreneurship, he shares his knowledge of Artificial Intelligence as a professor at renowned institutes in the fields of business, design and development.

Nieves is a finalist in the “Early Stage” category of the Women's Startup Awards, an award aimed at all entrepreneurs and early-stage startup managers who have demonstrated the potential to grow and make a positive impact in their industries. “Siempre o intentado intentado aportar mi granito de arena or the whole world covers technological and diverse fields,” he says.

The 18 finalists selected based on various criteria were selected by a jury of professionals from the world of entrepreneurship, marketing and business innovation such as Carmen Cuesta, EOI Director Fernando Garrido, Director Blanca Drake, responsible for the promotion of ENISA. Marketing de Innovación en Telefónica, Carla Cabedo, director of communication and policy at Glovo, Esther Molina, journalist and female co-founder of WILDCom, Glenn Cauwenbergs, president of ONU and Carlos Mateo's Startup department.

The winners of Edition III will be announced in each of the six categories: Early Stage, Expansion, Disclosure, Open Idea at a gala to be held on November 18 at the Coliseum Theater in Madrid at 7:30 p.m. , Investment and Innovation. “Since the first edition, participation has increased by 30%, each time there are more women looking for speakers to announce their projects,” says Carlos Mateo, president of the Spanish Association of Startups. “Associación Esperanza, ya que los los Los Women Startup Awards tienen como objetivo dar visibility al prendimiento femenino, ser implosores del cambio y un ejemplo para todas aquellas niñas y mujeres que queellas niñas y mujeres que quieren ser emprendre”.