What CIVIO does

Civio (Fundación Ciudadana Civio) is an independent Spanish non-profit foundation founded in February 2012 and headquartered in Madrid. The organization operates a civic technology and data journalism platform focused on government transparency, public accountability, and citizen access to information in Spain. Its product portfolio spans more than 14 tools and investigations: El Indultómetro (a pardon database since 1996), España en Llamas (a wildfire map covering up to 242,500 incidents from 1983-2023), ¿Dónde van mis impuestos? (a state budget exploration tool), El BOE nuestro de cada día (daily analysis of the Official State Gazette), Verba (search engine for TVE news broadcasts since 2014), Quién Manda (mapping over 3,800 entities and 5,800 relationships in Spanish public-private networks), Onodo (open-source network analysis tool), and benefit eligibility assistants for the Bono Social electricity subsidy (over one million uses) and Ingreso Mínimo Vital. Core technology is web-based civic technology, data journalism and visualization tooling, open data portals, and legal action to compel transparency disclosure.

Civio sustains a hybrid business model with no equity investors and no government, advertising, or corporate sponsorship by deliberate choice. Revenue is split across individual memberships (~2,300 socios y socias paying monthly fees of €4-12 or annual fees of €50-140, representing 35-40% of revenue), one-time donations, professional services including training for public administrations such as INAP and consulting on transparency tool adaptation for municipalities (43% of revenue), and institutional grants from organizations like Open Society Foundations, the European Journalism Centre, and the European Commission CHEST programme (38% of revenue). All content is free and openly re-publishable under Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0.

The team comprises approximately 10 people as of 2026 and is led by co-founders David Cabo and Jacobo Elosua alongside investigative journalists including Eva Belmonte. Civio has influenced Spanish transparency and public procurement law, won legal precedents at the Supreme Court, and forced disclosure of government advisor lists via a 47,868-signature campaign. Its content is regularly republished by major Spanish outlets (La Marea, El Confidencial, El Mundo, eldiario.es) and the organization has expanded methodology internationally through a partnership with Poland's Media 3.0 Foundation to replicate Quién Manda. Civio's strategy combines journalism, open data publication, legal action, and community funding as a deliberate integrated model for civic accountability.

Name

CIVIO

Legal name

Fundación Ciudadana Civio

Website

https://civio.es

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Civio is an independent Spanish non-profit foundation that combines investigative journalism, open civic technology tools, and litigation to demand government transparency and serve Spanish citizens, journalists, and public administrations.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Civic Technology and Transparency Journalism

NAICS

Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations (813)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Nonprofit & Cause Communications (BPAFADAK)

Keywords

• Civic technology
• Transparency journalism
• Open data platforms
• Data visualization tools
• Government accountability

Headquarters

HQ city

Madrid

HQ country

Spain

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Individual donations and membership fees: Approximately 2,300 members (socios y socias) pay annual or monthly fees. Membership fees represent approximately 35-40% of total revenues. Members receive benefits including early access to investigations, direct contact with the team, annual meeting, and a welcome pack. All content remains free and open to non-members.
2. One-time donations: Non-recurring donations from individuals who prefer one-time support over regular membership.
3. Professional services: Training for public officials (Instituto Nacional de Administración Pública, Instituto Aragonés de Administración Pública, Escuela de Periodismo de El País), and consulting services including adaptation and maintenance of the '¿Dónde van mis impuestos?' transparency tool for municipalities and autonomous communities. Represents approximately 43% of revenues.
4. Institutional grants and international support: Grants from international organizations including Open Society Foundations, European Commission (CHEST programme), European Journalism Centre (funding Medicamentalia investigation), and Media 3.0 Foundation (Poland) for replicating Quién Manda. Represents approximately 38% of revenues. No government or corporate advertising funding accepted.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Civio is a Spanish non-profit foundation that produces free investigative transparency journalism and a portfolio of interactive civic technology tools that help citizens, journalists, and public administrations access and analyze information about Spanish government activity. Its offerings include pardon and public contract databases, an interactive wildfire map, state budget explorers, Official Gazette analysis, eligibility assistants for social benefits, and open datasets, all distributed free under Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 licensing alongside paid training and consulting services for public bodies.

Product overview

CIVIO operates as a civic technology organization offering a portfolio of transparency and public accountability tools. The core offerings include El Indultómetro (pardon database), España en Llamas (wildfire mapping), ¿Dónde van mis impuestos? (budget visualization), and El BOE nuestro de cada día (daily gazette analysis). Additional tools include Verba (TV news search), Tuderechoasaber.es (transparency portal), and various specialized assistants for public benefits like Bono Social and IMV. The organization also provides open datasets and has developed AI usage policies governing data processing tools. All products are free and publicly accessible, reflecting CIVIO's mission to open public information to citizenship.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• El BOE nuestro de cada día: Daily analysis of the Spanish Official Gazette (Boletín Oficial del Estado)
• El Indultómetro
• España en llamas
• ¿Dónde van mis impuestos?
• Medicamentalia
• Tuderechoasaber.es
• Quién Manda
• Verba
• Onodo

Products and services

• El Indultómetro Searchable database of all pardons granted in Spain since 1996, allowing citizens, journalists, and researchers to analyze who received them, what crimes they were convicted of, and how the practice has evolved over time.
• España en Llamas Interactive map and database of forest fires in Spain covering data from 1983 to 2023 (up to 242,500 incidents), published in collaboration with the Ministry for Ecological Transition.
• ¿Dónde van mis impuestos? Interactive tool that explains public spending from Spain's General State Budgets, allowing citizens to explore where their tax money comes from and where it is spent, with search functionality and educational content.
• El BOE nuestro de cada día Daily analysis of Spain's Official State Gazette (Boletín Oficial del Estado) that makes complex government decrees, regulations, and emergency orders accessible to citizens, including tools such as the Decretómetro and butane gas price tracker.
• Tuderechoasaber.es Portal providing information and resources about transparency policies and the right to access public information in Spain, developed jointly with Access Info Europe, monitoring transparency law implementation.
• Verba Search engine for TVE (RTVE) news broadcasts since 2014, enabling users to find mentions of people or topics and analyze how media coverage of specific subjects has evolved over time.
• Quién Manda Map of public-private relationships in Spain, cataloging over 3,800 individuals and entities with more than 5,800 relationships including appointments, family ties, shared board memberships, and distinctions.
• Onodo Open-source tool that allows any citizen to analyze, visualize, and share complex relationship networks applied to any field or problem affecting their community.
• Bono Social Assistant Interactive web assistant that helps vulnerable citizens determine if they qualify for the electricity social bonus (Bono Social de la luz) subsidy; has recorded over one million uses.
• Ingreso Mínimo Vital Assistant Interactive assistant helping users discover if they qualify for Spain's Ingreso Mínimo Vital (IMV) minimum income benefit by answering simple questions.
• Datos Civio (Open Data Platform) Open data platform providing downloadable datasets on wildfires, housing, emergency contracts, prisons, primary healthcare, pardons, public budgets, and other transparency topics for citizens, journalists, and academics to reuse.
• Medicamentalia Cross-border investigative journalism project examining medication prices and access in developing countries, published in multiple languages.
• Professional Training and Consulting Services Training for public officials (delivered through INAP, Instituto Aragonés de Administración Pública) and consulting services for public administrations and media organizations, including adaptation and maintenance of the ¿Dónde van mis impuestos? transparency tool for municipalities and autonomous communities, plus data journalism training at the Escuela de Periodismo de El País. Represents approximately 43% of revenues.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 1 million uses of the Bono Social eligibility assistant, helping vulnerable citizens access electricity subsidies
• +6 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability1 record

Feature8 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Media 3.0 Foundation (Poland)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2014Polish organization Media 3.0 Foundation signed an agreement to replicate the Quién Manda platform for mapping relationships in the Polish parliament, adapting Civio's methodology and technology.
• Barcelona MediaminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2014Barcelona Media collaborated with Civio on the development of Onodo, a tool for analyzing, visualizing, and sharing complex relationship networks for civic applications.
• Sunlight FoundationminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2014Civio participated in Transparency Camp 2014 in Washington D.C. and collaborated on international campaigns for transparency and open government standards.
• Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2014Civio participated in OKFN Spain activities and was awarded Best Non-Public Transparency Initiative. Also participated in international Global Legislative Openness Week campaign alongside 108 organizations worldwide.
• Torrelodones City CouncilminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 1 January 2014First municipality to adopt Civio's transparency budget tool ¿Dónde van mis impuestos? for local use, generating interest from other public administrations.
• Instituto Nacional de Administración Pública (INAP)minorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 1 January 2014INAP contracted Civio to provide training to public officials on transparency, open data, and data journalism.
• Escuela de Periodismo de El PaísminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 1 January 2014Civio delivered data journalism training sessions at the El País journalism school.
• Access Info EuropecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCivio co-developed Tuderechoasaber.es with Access Info Europe, the main source of information and resources on transparency policies and the right to information access in Spain. The platform monitors transparency law implementation and advocates for open government.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights7 records

Direct peers

• Bellingcat: Open-source investigations nonprofit using data, satellite imagery, and open-source intelligence; highly comparable to Civio's investigative-journalism-plus-civic-tech model though focused internationally rather than on a single country.
• Sunlight Foundation: US nonprofit focused on government transparency and open data; Civio collaborated through Transparency Camp (Washington D.C.) and shared methodology on accountability and lobbying transparency — directly comparable mission and tools.
• Tactical Tech: International civic-tech NGO building tools and resources for digital literacy, transparency, and accountability; closely parallels Civio's combination of civic tools (Onodo, ¿Dónde van mis impuestos?) and public-facing advocacy.
• Access Info Europe: Madrid-based NGO specializing in the right-to-information and transparency policy across Europe; Civio co-developed Tuderechoasaber.es with Access Info, the platform for transparency law monitoring and advocacy in Spain.
• OCCRP (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project): Investigative journalism nonprofit producing data-driven cross-border investigations; comparable in its non-profit, grant-funded model, datasets, and focus on public-accountability reporting — Civio's Medicamentalia exemplifies similar methodology.
• MuckRock: US nonprofit that facilitates public records requests and shares open-data investigative tools; highly comparable in combining open-data tools, FOIA-style requests, and member-supported investigative reporting, though US-focused.
• Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN) / Open Knowledge Spain: Global network promoting open data and transparency; Civio won OKFN Spain's best non-public transparency initiative award in 2014 and participated in Global Legislative Openness Week alongside 108 organizations.

Broad incumbents

• ProPublica: Largest US investigative-journalism nonprofit; comparable non-profit member-supported investigative model and impact on public policy, though significantly larger in funding, headcount, and reach than Civio.

Regional players

• eldiario.es: Spain's leading digital-investigative outlet and reader-funded media; comparable Spanish-language investigative-journalism focus and audience, but operates as a commercial media company rather than a foundation and competes for similar transparency stories.

Emerging players

• Code for All / Code for Spain: International civic-tech brigade network building public-interest technology; comparable civic-technology mission and open-source tooling approach, though more volunteer-driven and less focused on investigative journalism than Civio.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/civio
• Facebookfacebook.com/fundacioncivio

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about CIVIO