Sergio Álvarez Leiva (Madrid 1985) began a degree in information technology at the Carlos III University in Madrid, but he dropped out to start working in a tech start-up. In 2009, Álvarez co-founded, with Javier de la Torre, the data visualisation company Vizzuality, with offices in Cambridge and Madrid. Three years later, he co-founded the location intelligence platform CartoDB, with offices in New York and Madrid, which has more than 150,000 users. In 2013, Álvarez went on to form part of the Global Shapers (WEF) community and, in 2014, he was named one of the ten MIT TR35 Young Innovators.

Álvarez Leiva has delivered courses and seminars at institutions such as IE Business School, the European Institute of Design and the Cartographic Institute of Catalonia (ICC).