Futurail, the European deep-tech startup developing an autonomy stack for self-driving trains, announced the closing of a seed round, bringing total funding to €7.5 million.
Founded in 2023, Futurail is led by former Tesla, Argo AI, and Edge Case leaders, who previously shaped the rise of autonomous driving in the automotive sector. Now, they are bringing that expertise to rail with a clear mission: to make trains the most attractive mode of transportation.
I spoke to Maximilian Schöffer, co-founder and CCO, to learn more.
The climate spark behind Futurail
According to Schöffer, CEO Alex Haag led Tesla’s Autopilot team before moving to Audi, where he built its self-driving unit from zero to 300 people as CTO and Managing Director.
“That became part of the Argo AI joint venture with Ford and Volkswagen. After years in robotics and automation, he began asking what he could do for his kids regarding climate change.”
Haag and his family started tracking their emissions and realised how much came from flying. He cut out flights almost entirely and began to rethink transportation. That reflection led him back to trains — still responsible for a third of global transport emissions, but with far more potential for decarbonisation. Schöffer detailed,
“He asked himself: why don’t we have autonomous trains? After speaking to people in the rail industry, he realised these were the same conversations the car industry was having 10–15 years ago — pilots here and there, but no real leader.
His takeaway from the auto sector was clear: incumbents won’t be the ones to crack autonomy. It would be specialised software startups.”
Schöffer had worked at a Pittsburgh-based autonomous driving startup and knew the space well. He recounted:
“When a mutual friend reintroduced me to Alex, at first I thought: “Trains? Sounds boring.” But the more we spoke, the more I realised the economics made perfect sense."
Schöffer contends, “We founded Futurail to bring that same revolutionary potential to rail, turning a 200-year-old industry into the backbone of sustainable mobility.”
Solving real industry pain points
Futurail offers two key selling points to the rail industry. In Europe, operators spend about €500,000 per train per year on driver salaries, because they need 5–6 drivers per train.
“Utilisation is poor: on average, drivers are only productive about 50 per cent of the time. We realised we could cut those costs by up to 80% with an autonomous software stack.”
Its first use case is depot autonomy. Up to 30 per cent of a driver’s time is spent in depots — moving trains to and from platforms, sidings, or yards. It's a fenced-off, restricted space, so it’s a perfect first use case. Depot autonomy, for example, frees drivers from repetitive shunting and lets them spend more time on productive passenger routes. Further, there’s an acute driver shortage.
According to Schöffer, almost half of Europe’s train staff is over 50 and will retire soon, while the EU wants to double rail kilometres.
“Training a driver takes 2–3 years. So we’re not replacing drivers anytime soon — we’re catching up with demand.”
Cracking “the pilot problem”
As of today, Futurail is already working with customers in Europe and the US, integrating and testing their system. Governments are under increasing pressure to offer flexible, cost-efficient and sustainable mobility for citizens and industries alike, which they can only achieve by shifting both passengers and freight from road to rail.
In mobility, many startups are able to successfully deploy their software in pilot projects but are unable to gain those critical first commercial customers, which lead to further product development, scale and customer acquisition. Critically, Futurail deliberately works with smaller, faster-moving players.
“This is not a fancy research project,” added Dr Patrick Dendorfer, CTO and co-founder.
“It is about the serious ambition to build a certified, safe system that holds the expectations to redefine how people and goods move.”
The startup already benefits from strategic early partnerships: in Europe with Lohr Group, a French global specialist in the design and manufacture of transport systems, including in railways; and in the United States with Parallel Systems, an automated, battery-electric freight rail vehicles startup founded by former SpaceX engineers.
“What excites our partners is that autonomy unlocks both growth and efficiency,” said Maximilian Schöffer, CCO and Co-Founder.
“Operators can run more trains, more often, at lower cost. That is a complete game-changer.”
At scale, this shift will move millions of passengers and tons of freight from road to rail, avoiding more than 10 million tons of CO₂ emissions annually.
Schöffer explained:
“In France, we’re in a government-backed consortium with a manufacturer and operator to build a new battery-electric train with autonomy integrated from the start. In the US, we’re working with Parallel Systems on retrofitting. Both projects are targeting certification in 2027, with mass production from 2028.
That’s why our current funding is structured to get us to that certification milestone — so we’re not just running demos, but building systems that will scale.”
Europe can’t miss the autonomy boat twice
Significantly, the company’s autonomy stack, FUTURAILDriver, can be integrated into new trains or retrofitted onto existing fleets. Importantly, it also enables full use of secondary lines and the reopening of previously unprofitable routes, strengthening regional connectivity and unlocking new capacity across the network.
“All processing happens on the train, with off-the-shelf sensors integrated through our perception and sensor fusion systems. Retrofitting is critical because trains last 40 years. You can’t wait until 2060 to buy your first autonomous fleet,” stresses Schöffer.
“We want to build Futurail into a global leader, but with a strong European base. Europe has the largest rail network in the world, and autonomy is a chance not to miss the boat — as we did with automotive AI."
From depot autonomy, Futurail plans to expand to branch line autonomy, connecting rural towns with regional trains, before tackling mainline routes, which are much more complex,” he explained.
“We see three phases: starting with depots and industrial sites — low-speed, restricted environments; moving to branch lines — rural routes with fewer trains and limited speeds; and ultimately mainlines — high-speed passenger and freight, which is the final goal.
“Our autonomy stack doesn’t care if it’s pulling passengers or freight; the key challenge is perception and certification. By 2027, we aim to have our first certified systems on the tracks."
Asterion Ventures (Paris) and Leap435 (Munich), co-led the round, which included EIT Urban Mobility and US investors Zero Infinity Partners and Heroic Ventures.
Investors see in Futurail a unique opportunity to lead the train autonomy market. “ combines deep technical expertise and long-term vision with proven commercial traction to establish global relevance,” said Alexandre Sauvage, Partner at Asterion Ventures.
“Their technology has the potential to transform rail into the backbone of sustainable mobility in Europe and beyond.”
Dr Matthias Kempf, Founding Partner at Leap435, added:
“Just as electric traction replaced steam and defined a new era, autonomy is the transformative technology of this century for the rail. Futurail is delivering this leap and ensuring Europe's industry stays ahead.
With €7.5 million in funding, comprising €5.5 million in seed investment, €1 million in public grants, and €1 million from a pre-seed conversion, Futurail will accelerate team expansion, drive key projects with leading train OEMs and operators, and obtain regulatory approval for its first use case: depot autonomy.
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