One-liner: the automotive & mobility cluster of the Comunitat Valenciana — represents the entire sector value chain (>€12.25B turnover, ~10% of regional GDP), turning 20 years old in 2026, and now the corporate demand-side gateway for mobility/EV/autonomous startups feeding into the Ford Almussafes ecosystem — plus an emerging defense-sector pivot.
What a founder gets
- Access to the corporate demand side: AVIA convenes the entire automotive/mobility value chain (OEMs, component makers, logistics, knowledge entities) — the practical route for a mobility/EV/autonomous-driving startup to get in front of buyers and integrators, not just funders.
- Membership services (paid, "Hazte socio"): negotiated collaboration agreements that lower market costs for members — recruitment support for hard-to-fill technical/executive roles, event co-management, project-partner matchmaking ("identificamos empresas complementarias... proveedores, desarrolladores tecnológicos o instituciones de investigación"), press/communications support, specialised quarterly training plan (open-enrollment + in-company/ad hoc), creative audiovisual production, and a shared procurement platform ("central de compras").
- MOVAVIA — a mobility data-spaces project run jointly with ITI, directly relevant to any startup building on shared mobility/logistics data.
- Networking: "Networking entre socios" events, the annual "Noche de la Automoción y Movilidad" gala, and "Mobility Innovation Valencia" — both have dedicated microsites linked from the homepage.
- A live training pipeline: e.g. "Taller de Innovación abierta y disruptiva" (8-hour course, 18–25 Sep 2026 cohort at time of capture) — open-innovation skills training a founder could plug into directly.
- Public grant track record as a funding conduit (see Key facts) — while these grants flow to AVIA itself (not directly to member startups), they fund sector-wide projects (data spaces, battery tech, decarbonization) that startups can partner into as consortium members.
Who it's for
- Companies across the full automotive/mobility value chain: vehicle and component manufacturers plus any company in the supply/knowledge chain (logistics, materials, software, data, EV/battery tech).
- Best fit: growth-to-scale-stage companies with a product ready to sell into or partner with automotive OEMs/Tier 1s — less suited to pure idea-stage founders, though early-stage mobility startups can still benefit from networking/training.
- Geographically anchored around Almussafes (Ford's Valencia plant) but represents the whole Comunitat Valenciana.
How to engage
- Membership: "Hazte socio" (become a member) via avia.com.es — paid membership (
cost: paid), tiered services described above. - Direct contact: (+34) 963 941 258 · avia@avia.com.es.
- Address: Polígono Industrial Juan Carlos I, Avenida de la Foia nº 8, edificio 3, 1º, puerta 2, 46440 Almussafes, Valencia.
- President: Paco Segura (Francisco "Paco" Segura, Grupo Segura) — figurehead contact, reconfirmed current 2026-07-05 via avia.com.es/organigrama.
- Working-level contact identified (2026-07-05): Jackie Sánchez-Molero, Director — previously flagged
status/verifyas unidentified; now confirmed via the org chart page. - Full board (per org chart, 2026-07-05): VPs Daniel Ruiz (Ford España), Guillermo Vives (KH Vives); Treasurer José Manuel Orta (Met Tecno 2000 SL); Secretary Alejandro Ríos (Broseta Abogados); vocales from Forvia-Faurecia, Faperin, Gestamp Levante, Industrias Alegre, Matrices Alcántara, KAMAX SLU, Industrias Ochoa, Radiadores Ordóñez — confirms AVIA's board is a Tier-1/OEM-heavy corporate-demand-side roster, reinforcing the "who it's for" fit above.
- For the defense-hub angle: AVIA co-founded a "Hub de Defensa de la Comunitat Valenciana" jointly with Espai Aero CV and Clúster Digital CV (CD-CV) in Jan 2026, recruiting 60+ companies — but this Hub dissolved its independent identity in June 2026, absorbed into CEV's Comisión de Seguridad y Defensa (chaired by CEV president Vicente Lafuente); the standalone defense cluster going forward is APOLO (clusterdefensacv.es, led by Jose Rosell) — see Cluster Defensa CV for the full 2026 reorg. Engage via Paco Segura, Pepe Nieto (Espai Aero), or Paco Gavilan (CD-CV; note Gavilan leads the sister cluster CD-CV, not an AVIA board seat).
Key facts
- Founded: turning 20 years old in 2026 ("AVIA cumple 20 años en plena transformación del sector hacia la movilidad sostenible" — homepage headline, 2026-07-02 capture).
- Sector scale: represents a value chain worth >€12.25B turnover, ~10% of Comunitat Valenciana's regional GDP (per 2026-06-30 ecosystem research).
- Strategic Plan 2025–2028 published on-site ("Plan Estratégico de AVIA 2025-2028").
- Public grant history (from AVIA's own "Ayudas" transparency page), showing it as an active, funded institution:
- 2025: INENTI/2025/15 (Conselleria d'Innovació) — €93,723.88 for automotive-sector reindustrialization activities. AEI-010700-2025-3 (Ministerio de Industria, PERTE Línea 4, project TECHDUAL) — consortium €489,054, AVIA's share €31,686. AEI-010700-2025-5 (Línea 4, project BATECHAIN) — consortium €583,196, AVIA's share €30,189.
- 2024: Ajuntament de València / Valencia Innovation Capital sectoral-events grant — €12,000. INENTI/2024/20 — €86,112.71.
- 2023: INENTI/2023/5 — €124,537.98. INNTA 1/2023/3 (from AVI — Sistema Valencià d'Innovació, "Agentes de innovación" line, 2023–2025) — €82,158.96. AEI-010500-2023-98 (project CAREBAT) — consortium €134,610, AVIA €9,410. AEI-010500-2023-386 (project ECOMOB II) — consortium €111,341, AVIA €9,808.
- 2022: AEI-010500-2022b-83 (DIGI-LOGIX) — consortium €159,638, AVIA €8,281. AEI-010500-2022b-311 (ECOMOB) — consortium €194,906, AVIA €29,560. INENTI/2022/21 — €148,363.94.
- 2021: INNTA1/2021/2 (AVI, Agentes de innovación) — €61,850. INENTI/2021/7 — €60,567.66.
- This confirms direct funding from AVI (via the Sistema Valencià d'Innovació "innovation agents" line) and from national PERTE/AEI cluster-competitiveness funds (Ministerio de Industria), in addition to municipal event-sponsorship from the Ajuntament/Valencia Innovation Capital.
- Recent activity: 2026 study confirms sector readiness for the Defense vertical ("Un estudio AVIA confirma la preparación del sector para Defensa"); AVIA welcomed Ford's announcement of Bronco-model manufacturing at the Almussafes plant.
- Partnerships: Grupo Cajamar (financial partner); joint MOVAVIA project with ITI.
- Runs member recruitment/HR services ("Selección de perfiles de difícil cobertura") — notable niche support for hard-to-fill technical hires, relevant to scaling startups.
Relations
- Funded by: IVACE+i Cluster Program
- Funded by: IVACE+i Cluster Program 2026
- Funded by: AVI
- Partners with: ITI
- Partners with: Paco Gavilan
- See also: GVA Clusters (registry)