Smart Cities Meet Urban Wildlife: Meow Metrics & Zoometrics in Málaga
In October, Malaga will host Green Cities, Urban Intelligence & Smart Mobility 2025, an event that is important for business, research, networking, and the exchange of knowledge and experiences between companies, universities, cities, and municipalities. The event is organized by Málaga Ciudad and FYCMA, and brings together experts, technology company leaders, and representatives of institutions and governments. Green Cities 2025 takes place a few weeks after the Research and Innovation Days in Brussels, where the focus was not only on science but also on the importance of innovation, startups, and building a strong and competitive Europe, highlighting the significance of these events.
Some of the topics include energy transition, digitalization, innovative projects, political strategies, technological progress, startups and investments, and smart, connected, and sustainable urban mobility. Last year, the event welcomed over 200 companies and institutions, 140 experts and lecturers, city mayors, and over 2,500 participants. Spain is investing in digitalization, smart mobility, and sustainable technologies, but the key to all of this is people—innovators, those who, with solutions that are not only innovative but also humane, show that this is an area where everything is connected….
Imagine a city where numerous colonies of stray cats live
Imagine a city where numerous colonies of stray cats live. Without a monitoring and care system, these animals can become neglected, sick, or reproduce too quickly, which creates numerous problems. However, to help address this, the start-up Meow Metrics arrives, which will present its work in Malaga at the Green Cities event.
Meow Metrics offers a solution that combines technology, people, animals, and the law to make everything work smoothly and ethically. Everyone works together through an app. Each volunteer can use their mobile phone to record where the cats are, how many there are in the colony, their health status… This data is then sent to the city services.
The platform uses artificial intelligence to predict where new colonies could form or where disease could appear, so that the city can intervene on time. Thanks to the precise data, the city can plan interventions to improve the health and safety of the animals. Cats are healthier because their condition is monitored, diseases are easier to prevent because it is immediately known where the problem areas are, and everything is in accordance with the law. Zoometrics extends this idea to the entire urban fauna: not only cats but also birds, domestic animals, invasive species, and plants.
The goal is to create a smart, sustainable city, where cities manage biodiversity based on data, preserving human and animal health. Meow Metrics and Zoometrics connect people and animals through technology– a solution that Europe needs, given that more than 100 million stray dogs and cats are estimated to roam its streets. This Madrid-based startup has a clear mission: to create a better and more harmonious coexistence between humans and animals.
Zoometrics was born thanks to the success of Meow Metrics
“Zoometrics was born thanks to the success of Meow Metrics. It all started with a very specific need: improving the management of community cat colonies — those living without owners on our streets — while ensuring animal welfare and public health in cities. Diana, our founder, was the Health Councilor in a municipality of over 70,000 inhabitants in Spain. From her position, she promoted the implementation of the CSR Protocol (Capture, Sterilization, and Return, or TNR in English), connecting — for the first time in a structured, georeferenced way, and collecting quality data — municipal staff, volunteers, and veterinarians. That experience became the starting point for developing Meow Metrics®, a digital platform designed to facilitate this management in an ethical, efficient, and collaborative way, collecting previously unavailable data. The response was immediate.
After a demo at the 2024 National Congress on Animal Rights (Ministry of Agenda 2030, Government of Spain), we began receiving requests from municipalities all over Spain. Within a few months, we had numerous active public clients. But it was precisely thanks to them that we took the next step. The municipal technicians themselves conveyed an obvious need: to be able to manage, from a single platform and in an integrated way, not only urban cats but also other urban wildlife species such as domestic animals, wild birds, game animals, invasive species, or even flora. This is how Zoometrics® was born: a comprehensive urban biodiversity management suite, with interoperable modules, ready to integrate with smart municipal systems, transparency platforms, and digital twins.
Today, Zoometrics enables cities to move towards a more sustainable model, aligned with the One Health strategy and the Sustainable Development Goals, where the health of animals, people, and the urban environment is managed in a connected and intelligent way,” said Diana Barrantes Olías de Lima, Founder of Zoometrics.
In many countries, there is a problem with, for example, irresponsible ownership of dogs and cats, or the abandonment of pets that end up on the streets… How can your platform help in this case?
Diana Barrantes Olías de Lima: Animal abandonment and irresponsible ownership are structural problems that affect both animal welfare and public health, as well as community coexistence. In this context, our platform — Meow Metrics®, as part of the Zoometrics® ecosystem — acts as an ethical, preventive, and data-driven management tool, serving municipalities and citizens. First, we help municipalities gain real and up-to-date control of urban cat colonies, most of which originate from abandonment and the lack of sterilization of domestic animals. Our technology allows for the early detection, registration, and intervention on these hotspots, thanks to a system of geolocated alerts and direct coordination between volunteers, municipal technicians, and veterinarians. Through the platform, we also promote responsible ownership education via integrated training modules in the app, aimed at volunteers, accredited caregivers, and citizens. These contents help reinforce good practices, prevent abandonment, and improve coexistence between humans and animals in urban spaces.
But perhaps the greatest impact of Meow Metrics® lies in its ability to transform data into intelligent policy decisions. As the system is fed with information collected from the field, predictive intelligence functionalities are activated that allow anticipating needs and planning interventions: where new cases of abandonment may arise, which areas require sterilization campaigns, or how the implementation of the CER/TNR protocol is evolving. Until now, this type of information was either nonexistent or merely estimative. With our platform, municipalities can finally properly gauge a problem that has historically been invisible and design more accurate budgets, more effective public policies, and preventive strategies aligned with current legislation (such as Spain’s Animal Welfare Law 7/2023).
In short, we move from reaction to anticipation. From intuition to evidence. From improvisation to digital, ethical, and sustainable urban wildlife management.
“We are going to Green Cities not only to present, but to learn, collaborate, and continue building a city model where urban biodiversity management, public health, and responsible technology advance together toward a more ethical and sustainable future.”
You will be attending Green Cities in Málaga. What are your expectations, and how important is this event for startups?
Diana Barrantes Olías de Lima: Green Cities Málaga is, without a doubt, one of the major benchmarks in Spain in the field of Smart Cities and urban sustainability. For any GovTech or GreenTech startup, being present there is not just an opportunity: it is a strategic necessity. Our participation has several key objectives. On one hand, we aim to give visibility to our solution, Meow Metrics®, and the Zoometrics® suite, presenting it as an innovative component that can be integrated into the most advanced urban management platforms. We want to establish partnerships with technology companies already operating in the Smart City ecosystem, offering them a specialized module in urban wildlife management, public health, and compliance with environmental legislation.
On the other hand, Green Cities allows us to make direct contact with political decision-makers, municipal technicians, and heads of key areas such as health and the environment, which is essential to understand their real challenges and adjust our technological roadmap to their needs. This feeds our growth strategy based on GovTech (B2B2G), where active listening to public administrations is as important as technological innovation. In short, we are going to Green Cities not only to present, but to learn, collaborate, and continue building a city model where urban biodiversity management, public health, and responsible technology advance together toward a more ethical and sustainable future.
“In Europe, there is much talk about cleantech and greentech, energy transition, sustainable mobility, or decarbonization, but almost nothing about urban biodiversity. Yet, as cities advance in renaturalization processes and incorporate more green spaces, coexistence with animals in urban environments also grows.”
What is your biggest challenge in the European market?
Diana Barrantes Olías de Lima: Interestingly, our biggest challenge is also our greatest opportunity. In Europe, there is much talk about cleantech and greentech, energy transition, sustainable mobility, or decarbonization, but almost nothing about urban biodiversity. Yet, as cities advance in renaturalization processes and incorporate more green spaces, coexistence with animals in urban environments also grows. Where there is more green, there is more life. This is where we come in. We are creating a new market category, focused on the smart and ethical management of urban biodiversity, with an approach that integrates technology, public health, and regulatory compliance.
The challenge, logically, is explaining something that still has no name on many public agendas. But what requires education today will be a standard tomorrow. Because coexistence with urban wildlife is no longer anecdotal: it is structural. And any city that truly wants to be “green” will need solutions to manage that life responsibly, with traceability and transparency. Our advantage is that we are positioning ourselves early in this new field, anticipating the emerging European market for biodiversity credits and future regulations that will integrate fauna, flora, and human health under strategies such as One Health and the Sustainable Development Goals. So yes, it is a challenge. But it is also a pioneering position in a key space for the cities of the future.
Your work includes all aspects of sustainability, health, and digitalization… how difficult is it to combine all these elements?
Diana Barrantes Olías de Lima: It is a complex challenge, yet this is precisely where the value of our project lies. The key is to approach it with a systemic and multidisciplinary perspective, and that is what has defined our team from the beginning. We have software developers who are experts in data science and population censuses, specialists in biology and forestry engineering, and also the leadership of a former public health councilor, who knows firsthand the challenges of local administration. This diversity of profiles allows us to understand sustainability not only from an environmental perspective, but also from public health, municipal governance, and smart urban management perspectives.
Moreover, institutional collaboration is in our DNA. We work actively with public administrations, research centers, and third-sector organizations, which allows us to continuously adapt our technological roadmap to the real needs of those on the ground. In short, integrating sustainability, health, and digitalization is not easy… but it is possible if approached through science, technology, and social empathy. And we believe this is the only way for the cities of the future to be truly intelligent, inclusive, and healthy.
Not necessarily as the main goal, what do you hope your startup will improve in the next year or two, and in which area do you need the most support to achieve it?
Diana Barrantes Olías de Lima: Our boldest initiative — and also our greatest potential contribution — is to create and consolidate a new category: urban biodiversity as an essential part of public health and urban sustainability. With Meow Metrics® and the Zoometrics® suite, we have already demonstrated that it is possible to digitalize urban wildlife management, improve health traceability, and facilitate regulatory compliance with accessible, scalable tools that are operational in Spanish municipalities. We are not talking about ideas: we are talking about solutions already in use.
But for this vision to be consolidated in the medium term, we need greater institutional visibility and, above all, access to strategic decision-making spaces, both at the national level and in Brussels. We mean technical committees, intersectoral working groups, and collaboration networks where the future of cities, the European biodiversity framework, biodiversity credits, or the post-2030 urban agenda are being designed. Our first clients — municipalities pioneering the implementation of the CER protocol — have already become our best allies and advocates. But we also need those innovating from practice to be heard. Because we want to grow not only as a company but also as an active player in building more sustainable, ethical, and data-driven public policies. And for that, being part of the conversation is just as important as having the solution.
Innovative platforms such as Meow Metrics® and Zoometrics® demonstrate how technology can transform urban biodiversity management. By integrating real-time monitoring, geolocated data, and predictive analytics, cities can track populations, anticipate potential problems, and implement timely interventions. Stray and abandoned animals, once invisible in municipal planning, are now accounted for, allowing authorities to design precise sterilization campaigns, prevent disease, and optimize resource allocation. While cleantech, greentech, energy transition, and sustainable mobility dominate policy discussions, urban biodiversity remains underrepresented. Yet biodiversity is essential for resilient, healthy, and intelligent cities. So the message is clear: managing urban biodiversity with precision, care, and technology is a key component of sustainable urban life, public health, and community well-being.
Courtesy of Diana Barrantes Olías de Lima
