Today, we’d like to introduce you to Humara, an innovative startup developing software tools to optimise the design and operation of waste treatment plants. We spoke with its co-founder & CEO, Laura Rodríguez.
What problem does your startup address, and what solution do you offer?
At Humara, we’re tackling a critical bottleneck in the circular economy: the way waste treatment plants are designed.
Despite being essential infrastructure, their design process remains slow, manual, and prone to errors.
After more than a decade working in the sector, we created Humara Design: a SaaS platform that digitises this process, cuts engineering time by 80%, and enables data-driven design instead of relying on estimates.
With our platform, operators, engineers, and public administrations can simulate scenarios, automate calculations, and compare solutions in just minutes.
Over the past year, it’s been used to design more than 180 plants across Europe and Latin America, saving thousands of hours in technical work.
Our mission is clear: to make it easier to build more and better plants, faster, and anywhere in the world.
How and why did you start this entrepreneurial journey? Any advice from your experience that you’d share with aspiring founders?
After years of designing treatment plants, we knew the processes were slow, manual, and hard to scale. Everything relied on spreadsheets, with no tools for collaboration or standards to streamline the work. It was clear the sector needed a transformation.
Our advice: build something in a field where you already have scars. Solving real problems you’ve personally experienced gives you clarity and momentum. Surround yourself with a team that shares your vision and commitment. And above all, if you’re working in complex industrial sectors, think long-term: sales cycles are slow, and blending private funding with public support can make all the difference.
How do you see the sector evolving? And what are your expectations for your startup?
The waste sector is undergoing major transformation.
At Humara, we aim to lead that change. We aspire to become the standard for designing and operating plants—just as BIM became the benchmark in construction. Today, we help design them faster and better. Tomorrow, we want to optimise how they’re run, using real-time data.
Our goal: to scale globally, boost technical efficiency, and make this industry more transparent and sustainable.
Any upcoming developments you’d like to share with other startups?
We’re closing the loop: bringing design and operation into a single platform.
We’re already integrating real operational data, enabling clients to not only design, but also optimise their plants in real time.
This quarter, we’re launching three key innovations:
– Autolayout, which automatically generates BIM-compatible designs.
– Economic Module, which evaluates projects using real-time data from over 130 countries.
– Internal Databases, which allows integration of custom equipment and data into the platform.
This changes the game: now, each client can tailor our expert engine to the reality of their own plants.
We’re also finalising partnerships with major international operators and preparing to launch our new operations module, which will enable live plant monitoring and data-driven decision-making.
We believe the sector’s future lies in integrated platforms. And Humara is building that vision.
What kind of collaborations are you looking for with other startups, companies, or organisations?
We’re keen to collaborate with organisations that share our vision of a more efficient, digital, and sustainable waste sector.
We’re particularly interested in three areas:
– Sensor technology and on-site data capture, to connect design with real-time operations.
– Applied intelligence and algorithm development, to improve the accuracy of our models.
– Networks and clusters in emerging markets, where technical challenges meet social ones.
Real change requires collaboration. That’s why we believe in building ecosystems that accelerate transformation in the sector.
We’re currently running pilots with two major international operators for our upcoming operations module—and we’re looking for a third.
If you’re transforming a plant and think we could help, let’s talk.