The Pulse, a startup established less than two years ago at the Araba Technology Park, helps companies enhance their work environment and employee psychological well-being through artificial intelligence. The project has received support from the SPRI Group's Ekintzaile program and the BIC Araba service.
Founded as a spin-off from Shackleton (a consultancy with over 22 years of experience in organizational development) in alliance with Zyonia, its goal is to translate this expertise into an AI platform that replaces annual workplace atmosphere surveys and provides a continuous, actionable diagnosis of people's well-being, as explained by Pablo Atela, one of the project's leads.
In 2025, it secured its first paying client, conducting an emotional analysis for 5,800 participants for a Chilean mining services company. In 2026, NEIKER replaced The Pulse as its regular provider for workplace atmosphere surveys. They have also been selected for 4YFN (Mobile World Congress), South Summit Madrid, and a business mission to China. Currently, they collaborate with organizations such as ASLE, Alcampo, and Madrid Digital, with projects in five countries.
The Pulse offers SaaS (Software as a Service): starting from a few open-ended questions answered in under a minute via mobile, it generates real-time emotional diagnostics through dashboards and action recommendations. They primarily work with companies and institutions, especially SMEs and medium-sized enterprises with 20 to 500 employees, but also with communities impacted by large investment projects and educational centers. Their analysis engine can be integrated into third-party products via API, such as voice systems in contact centers.
In 2025, it closed its first year of revenue at 20,000 euros, and for the current fiscal year, it projects multiplying that amount tenfold, reaching 200,000 euros. Of this, 57,055 euros are already contracted with NEIKER. Their current project portfolio includes collaborations with organizations like ASLE, LOGIKALINE, and Alcampo.
As a technology-based company, product development is a core activity, dedicating around 60% of revenue to R&D. Their work focuses on developing and improving their emotional analysis engine, evolving from lexical technique-based analysis to language models, which has increased the accuracy of Spanish analysis from 60% to over 85%. They are also collaborating with Tecnalia's Human Factors and User Experience department within the EU-LAC Digital Accelerator program.
The support received through SPRI's Ekintzaile program has been directed towards various activities to launch the project, including consultancy, external training, commercial prospecting, prototype development, and participation in fairs and trips. This assistance has enabled them to validate the product with early customers and prepare it for market entry.
Looking ahead, the main challenges in product development include analyzing voice in real-time and creating a public API that allows other companies to integrate their analysis engine. In security, they are progressing towards obtaining ISO 27001 certification, with an initial audit planned for 2027. Business-wise, their goals include expanding The Pulse to ASLE's partner companies, strengthening their presence in Latin America, and closing the first private investment round, for which they have the support of Octantis and EBAN.
The company emphasizes its compliance with data protection laws from the design phase: results are always presented in an aggregated and anonymous manner, and the platform does not evaluate individuals. Furthermore, clients can deploy the solution on their own infrastructure or use European AI providers. They also closely monitor the restrictions set by the European AI Act regarding emotion recognition in the workplace.
