From a diesel generator to the Fuerteventura Technology Park

The story of an idea that began more than fifteen years ago and continues to grow from the Canary Islands towards Europe.

Some business stories begin with a funding round. Others, with a major client. Ours began long before MNX Online even existed.

It began around 2010 in Fuerteventura, at a time when developing technology from a non-capital island seemed, to many, an overly ambitious idea.

There were no modern offices, no established team, no funding and no perfectly defined roadmap.

There was only one conviction, difficult to explain but very easy to understand: from the Canary Islands, it was also possible to create technology capable of competing, collaborating and making an impact beyond our borders.

That idea grew little by little through small projects, countless hours of learning, mistakes, successes and decisions that, in hindsight, shaped a journey far longer than we could have imagined at the time.

What began as a personal endeavour eventually became a company, a team and, over the years, initiatives such as TOURiLab and TOURiLab Data Space.

But none of that happened overnight, because this story is not only about technology. It is about a way of understanding innovation that has remained the same since day one.

“The company was incorporated in 2021. The story began much earlier.”

It all started with a question

Many companies are born around a business opportunity. Ours was born around a question:

Was it possible to develop technology from Fuerteventura without giving up the ambition to compete with companies anywhere else?

In the early 2010s, talking about smart cities, interoperability, data spaces or artificial intelligence applied to territories was still unusual. Digital transformation was only beginning to gain prominence, and concepts that are now part of everyday life for many organisations were still unfamiliar to most.

It was in that context that the project’s first steps were taken. First from the Business Promotion Unit (UPE) of the Cabildo de Fuerteventura and later from the Business Incubator of the Chamber of Commerce, spaces that offered something far more valuable than a place to work: the opportunity to learn, experiment and begin turning an idea into reality.

Those years were shaped by the development of websites, applications and bespoke solutions for companies and public administrations. Every project brought a new lesson, every client required us to understand different problems, and every challenge allowed us to acquire knowledge that would later prove decisive.

It was also during this stage that Jessica Gil joined the project. She arrived at a time when everything was still to be built, and since then has shared the same way of understanding work, technology and commitment to the territory.

There was no grand strategic plan or roadmap capable of anticipating everything that would come later. What did exist, above all, was a way of doing things: listening, learning, improving and starting again. Over time, that approach to every project and to building the company would become one of MNX Online’s defining traits.

“Great stories rarely begin as something great. They begin by taking the first step.”

What seemed at the time like the end of one stage was, in fact, only the beginning of the journey.

The years at the UPE and the Business Incubator had allowed us to learn, experiment and shape our way of understanding technology. However, as happens with many entrepreneurial projects, the time came to leave that incubation environment and continue on our own.

At first glance, it might have seemed like a step backwards. In reality, it marked the beginning of the stage that would shape our identity the most.

Growing also meant persevering

Not every company looks back proudly on the years spent working from a room at home. We do, because it was precisely there that we learned some of the lessons that still define the way we work today.

After leaving the UPE and Business Incubator facilities, the activity continued from home. There were no large offices, departments or sizeable team.

“The office moved around depending on the needs of the day. What mattered was not where we worked, but keeping the activity alive and moving forward, project by project.”

Every new assignment brought a different challenge and every client was an opportunity to keep learning. The reality was far less epic than it may seem in hindsight: long working days, limited resources and the constant need to make decisions to keep the project moving forward. But one thing was never missing: the determination to keep building, even when progress was not always visible from the outside.

While many people associated innovation with large cities or major companies, we remained convinced that high-quality technology could also be developed from Fuerteventura. That conviction meant that every difficulty eventually became an opportunity to improve.

It was during those years that we began to understand that the real value of our work did not lie solely in developing software. It lay in understanding each organisation’s problems and building solutions that were genuinely useful to them.

Without realising it, we were beginning to move beyond being simply developers and becoming technology partners to our clients.

Learning before specialising

During that stage, projects of very different kinds began to arrive.

We developed websites, bespoke applications, management platforms and solutions tailored to a wide range of needs.

Every new project broadened our experience and pushed us beyond our comfort zone.

Looking back, none of those projects was especially important in isolation. What truly mattered was everything we learned from them, because each challenge solved a specific need while also preparing us to face the next one with more experience.

Without knowing it, we were building the technical foundations that years later would allow us to work with open technologies, interoperability, smart cities and data spaces.

Over time, we began to identify a pattern that appeared again and again. The problems were rarely in the applications themselves. They lay in the difficulty of enabling different systems to share information, reuse existing data and evolve without depending on closed solutions.

It became increasingly clear that the next step was not to develop more applications, but to enable all of them to understand one another. That reflection led us to search for new ways of building technology and, almost without realising it, began to shape the direction we would follow over the coming years.

A way of working that remains the same

Although the company has evolved enormously since then, some things have barely changed.

We still believe that listening is more important than selling, that understanding the problem must always come before proposing a solution, and that technology only makes sense when it helps improve people’s lives or the way organisations operate.

Those years also consolidated a way of working based on closeness, honesty and continuous improvement.

Values that remain present in every project we develop today, because the infrastructure has changed, the team has grown and our experience has multiplied, but the way we understand our work remains essentially the same.

“Growth does not always mean becoming bigger. Sometimes it simply means never stopping moving forward.”

From developing applications to connecting ecosystems

There are moments when a company does not change direction. It simply gains a clearer understanding of where it had been heading all along. That is exactly what happened to us.

For years, we had developed applications, platforms and bespoke solutions for companies and public administrations. Each project solved a specific need, but they all shared the same problem: information remained isolated, systems did not communicate with one another, data was locked inside separate applications, and every new integration meant practically starting from scratch.

As the world moved towards an increasingly connected economy, we saw many organisations continuing to face the same obstacle: having data, but being unable to unlock its full potential.

That was when we understood that the real challenge was no longer simply developing software. It was enabling that software to communicate with other systems, share information securely and evolve without depending on closed technologies.

That search led us to FIWARE, a technology ecosystem that would profoundly shape our evolution.

Finding a technology… and a philosophy

What we found in FIWARE was much more than a set of technological components. We found a different way of building solutions: a commitment to open standards, interoperability, reducing unnecessary dependencies and enabling different organisations to collaborate without losing control over their own data.

It was exactly the direction in which we were already heading. The difference was that there was now an international community that shared the same vision.

In 2020, Mannix obtained the official FIWARE Expert certification, becoming one of the few accredited professionals in Spain at the time.

Beyond the personal recognition, it represented something much more important for the company: confirmation that the technological specialisation we had been building over the years was aligned with one of Europe’s most significant open initiatives.

It was not a destination. It was the beginning of a new stage.

When innovation goes beyond the local level

From that point onwards, we became much more actively involved in national and international projects related to the data economy, interoperability and smart territories.

We were not only working with open technologies; we were also contributing to their evolution.

We took part in European projects such as i4Trust, collaborated on the definition and validation of Smart Data Models, began working alongside organisations from different countries and became part of communities discussing some of the technological challenges that now occupy a central place in Europe.

Every project brought new knowledge, every collaboration opened new opportunities and every experience reinforced an idea we had discovered years earlier: innovation knows no borders when there is a community willing to share knowledge.

“The most valuable technology is not the technology that locks information away. It is the technology that enables different organisations to create value together.”

Learning abroad to transform at home

As our participation in European initiatives increased, so did the number of international meetings, conferences and forums where we shared experiences and learned from other territories.

Travel was never the objective. Every trip was an opportunity to listen, learn and return with new ideas that could be applied in the Canary Islands.

Every trip reinforced the same conviction: the best solutions rarely emerge from working in isolation. They arise when different people, organisations and territories share experiences, compare approaches and learn from one another.

At first, we attended these events mainly to listen and broaden our perspective. We wanted to understand how other territories were addressing similar challenges, which technologies they were using and which collaboration models were beginning to take shape within and beyond Europe.

Over time, we stopped attending solely to learn. We also began sharing our own experience, giving talks, collaborating as experts and actively participating in communities where we continue to contribute knowledge today.

That change reflected an important evolution. We were no longer simply a Canary Islands company looking outward for references, but an organisation able to contribute its own experience, built in Fuerteventura and tested through real projects.

Every presentation, collaboration and international conversation helped us expand our network, but also confirmed something essential: knowledge acquired elsewhere only reached its full value when it could return to the territory and become new capabilities, projects and opportunities.

Every meeting, conference and conversation has been an opportunity to learn from other territories, share our experience and return to the Canary Islands with new ideas, partnerships and projects. Because innovation also means listening, collaborating and building together.

Building from the Canary Islands for Europe

Taking part in these spaces never meant moving away from our territory. Quite the opposite. The more we learned about other international initiatives, the clearer the enormous potential of the Canary Islands became.

We understood that our role was not limited to developing technology projects. We could also act as a bridge between the knowledge being generated in Europe and the real needs of our public administrations, companies and organisations.

In other words: we learned elsewhere so we could build better here, and that way of understanding innovation would eventually lead to one of the most important projects in our journey: TOURiLab.

All the experience accumulated over the years —projects, international collaborations, participation in technology communities and specialisation in interoperability— eventually converged around a single idea.

If we wanted to accelerate innovation in the Canary Islands, developing solutions for each organisation separately was not enough. We needed to create a place where they could all collaborate. That place would eventually be called TOURiLab.

Returning to where part of our story began

Some places hold a special meaning. Not because of the building or its facilities, but because of everything they represent.

For us, one of those places will always be today’s Fuerteventura Technology Park.

Some of our earliest steps were taken there; it was where we learned and where we met many of the people who would shape our journey. Years later, we decided to return to that environment… but this time in a very different way. We were no longer a small initiative trying to find its way. We returned as a very different company from the one that had left years earlier: with an established track record, a multidisciplinary team, public and private clients, international experience, European projects, a network of collaborators across different countries and, above all, a much clearer vision of the contribution we wanted to make.

Returning, this time to premises within the Technology Park itself, was not simply a change of office. It was coming full circle.

The same place that had helped us get started years earlier now became the base from which to drive a new stage. A stage in which we no longer wanted simply to develop technology. We wanted to help build the technology ecosystem we would have liked to find when we started.

“There are places you return to because they were important. And others because they still have a great deal of future ahead of them.”

A new role within the ecosystem

Over the years, our understanding of the role we should play also changed.

We continued developing technology solutions and working with companies and public administrations, but it became increasingly clear that many organisations shared the same challenges.

They needed to digitise processes, exchange information, extract more value from their data, collaborate with one another and do so without losing autonomy.

We began to understand that, in addition to building technology, we could also help connect organisations, facilitate collaboration, share knowledge and create community.

In other words, we were moving from developing individual projects to driving initiatives capable of generating collective impact, and that difference would completely change the way we worked.

Innovation was no longer enough

Until then, our work had mainly consisted of solving technological problems, but we began asking ourselves a new question.

What would happen if, in addition to solving one organisation’s problems, we could get several organisations to collaborate on solving common challenges?

The answer led us to think about something much bigger than a specific project. It led us to imagine a space where companies, public administrations, universities, startups and research centres could innovate together. Not around a technology, but around a shared purpose.

That idea would eventually become one of the most ambitious projects in our history.

“After more than a decade developing technology, we wanted to create a place where others could innovate too.”

TOURiLab is born

That journey had helped us understand that the next step was no longer simply to create better solutions, but to create the conditions for more organisations to innovate together, because innovation moves much faster when it is built collaboratively.

That idea gave rise to TOURiLab.

Not as a laboratory, a building or even a European project, but as a meeting point for companies, public administrations, universities, technology centres, startups and researchers sharing the same objective: to promote a different way of innovating from the Canary Islands.

We wanted to create a space where sharing knowledge was as important as developing technology, where ideas could flow as easily as data, and where collaboration would cease to be the exception and become the usual way of working.

Perhaps one of the things we are most proud of at this stage is seeing people and organisations come together around TOURiLab that might never otherwise have met.

Much more than a FIWARE iHub

Over time, TOURiLab grew to become the first FIWARE iHub in the province of Las Palmas.

That recognition represented much more than an international accreditation. It confirmed that the Canary Islands could also become a territory capable of driving open innovation using European standards.

But we did not stop there either. The natural evolution of that journey led to a new concept that was beginning to gain prominence in Europe: data spaces.

We had spent years talking about interoperability. The next step was now to enable different organisations to share information securely, under governance rules and in a way that generated value for all parties. That is how TOURiLab Data Space was born. Not as an isolated project, but as the logical evolution of more than fifteen years of accumulated knowledge.

A space built from the Canary Islands

Although TOURiLab has a clear international outlook, we have always been very conscious of where its starting point should be: the Canary Islands.

We believe innovation has a much greater impact when it responds to real territorial needs. That is why many of the first initiatives developed through TOURiLab have focused on strategic sectors for our islands: tourism, the blue economy, sustainability, smart territories, mobility, the primary sector and public administrations.

Not because these are the only possible areas, but because they are where we believe technology can make the greatest difference for the people who live here.

“We did not want to create another technology project. We wanted to create a place where innovation could continue to happen even when we were not the ones driving it.”

Each photograph captures a different moment, but together they tell the same story: that of a team that has learned by sharing knowledge, building partnerships and collaborating with people who believe innovation moves faster when it is built together.

A change of scale

If the first years were devoted to learning and the following years to specialising, this new stage represented a change of scale.

From developing projects… we moved to driving ecosystems.

From working with individual organisations… we moved to connecting them.

From creating solutions… we moved to enabling others to innovate too.

And that is probably the best way to summarise this entire journey because, in hindsight, our story has never been solely about developing technology. It has been about creating the conditions for others to do so as well.

“The success of a technology company is not measured only by what it develops, but also by everything it manages to make happen around it.”

Milestones that have shaped our evolution

Throughout this journey, we have reached milestones of very different kinds. Some marked the growth of the initiative; others recognised our technological specialisation, expanded our connections with international ecosystems or led us to take on new responsibilities within the sector.

More than a collection of recognitions, they represent the different stages of an evolution built over years through projects, learning and collaboration.

The first steps

🚀 2010–2011 · Technology activity begins
The first projects lay the foundations for the initiative that, more than a decade later, would be formally incorporated as MNX Online, S.L.

🏢 2011 · Business Promotion Unit of the Cabildo de Fuerteventura. The UPE provides our first environment in which to learn, experiment and begin developing our activity.

💡 2012 · Fuerteventura Chamber of Commerce Business Incubator and Startup Weekend Gran Canaria. Moving to the incubator represents another step in consolidating the project and strengthening its relationship with the island’s business community. That same year, we take part in Startup Weekend Gran Canaria, a 54-hour intensive experience alongside entrepreneurs, designers and developers to continue advancing LocalConnection, one of our earliest projects.

Specialisation and international expansion

🌍 2019 · Finalists in FIMAC’s Digital Innovation Challenge. MNX Online is selected as one of seven finalist projects in FIMAC’s Digital Innovation Challenge, an initiative aimed at promoting the internationalisation of innovative companies in Macaronesia.

🎓 2020 · International selection and FIWARE Expert certification. Mannix Manglani is selected among 20 professionals from 10 countries to join the international FIWARE Expert programme and subsequently obtains the official certification. This recognition marks the beginning of a stage of specialisation in open technologies and interoperability.

🇪🇺 2021 · Incorporation of MNX Online, S.L. and participation in i4Trust. After more than a decade of technology activity, MNX Online, S.L. is officially incorporated in December. This stage also marks the beginning of our participation in European initiatives such as i4Trust, focused on secure and sovereign data exchange.

🧩 2023 · First FIWARE iHub in the province of Las Palmas and first APTE Top 100 recognition. TOURiLab is accredited as the first FIWARE iHub in the province of Las Palmas. MNX Online joins the FIWARE community as a Gold Member, actively participates in Smart Data Models and is recognised for the first time by APTE as one of Spain’s 100 most innovative startups.

Consolidation and commitment to the ecosystem

🏆 2024 · Official launch of TOURiLab and new recognitions. We officially launch TOURiLab as a space for promoting open innovation and the data economy from the Canary Islands. That same year, we receive the APTE Top 100 recognition for the second consecutive year, obtain the Innovation and Digitalisation Runner-up Award at the Las Palmas SME of the Year Awards, and strengthen our participation in initiatives such as Gaia-X and other ecosystems linked to the data economy.

📜 2025 · Standards, tourism intelligence and third consecutive APTE Top 100 recognition. MNX Online joins CTN-UNE 71/SC 43 as a committee member, participates in the Artificial Intelligence Platform (PIA) of Spain’s Smart Destinations Platform (PID), and receives the APTE Top 100 recognition for the third consecutive year, consolidating a continuous track record within Spain’s innovation ecosystem.

🤝 2026 · New responsibilities within the technology ecosystem. MNX Online joins the Board of Directors of the Canary Islands Technology Excellence Cluster (CET), and TOURiLab Data Space is recognised as an eligible data space under the Data Spaces Kit programme of Spain’s Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Administration, strengthening its role as infrastructure for driving the data economy in the Canary Islands.

“Together, these milestones reflect the evolution of an initiative that began in Fuerteventura with limited resources and that, step by step, has expanded its capabilities, collaboration network and commitment to the territory’s technological development.”

The best is yet to be built

More than fifteen years ago, we began by trying to prove that technology could also be created from Fuerteventura. Today, we are still pursuing exactly the same goal. The difference is that we are no longer walking that path alone.

We do it alongside a team, a community and hundreds of people and organisations who believe that innovation does not depend on where you work from, but on the ability to imagine what does not yet exist.

And the best part of our story… is still waiting to be written.