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. The round was co-led by Asterion Ventures (Paris) and Leap435 (Munich), joined by EIT Urban Mobility, an initiative of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT),a body of the EU and U.S. investors Zero Infinity Partners and Heroic Ventures.
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. “While leading the Autopilot team at Tesla, I saw how autonomy can completely transform an entire industry,” said Alex Haag, CEO and Co-Founder of Futurail. “We founded Futurail to bring that same revolutionary potential to rail, turning a 200-year-old industry into the backbone of sustainable mobility.” As of today, Futurail is already working with customers in Europe and the US, integrating and testing their system.
Building the first certified system for driverless trains
Futurail is using their world-leading AI technology to tackle one of rail’s biggest challenges: a growing shortage of train drivers limiting the expansion of rail services and driving up operating costs.
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. Futurail meets this urgent demand head-on with automated train operation that allows operators to run more services at lower cost while boosting reliability, flexibility, and safety.
Its 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.
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. “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.”
Autonomy unlocks a new era of growth and innovation
Investors see in Futurail a unique opportunity to lead the train autonomy market. “Futurail’s team combines world-class expertise in autonomous technology and has already achieved early traction with projects in the US and in Europe,” said Johannes Kirschner, Investment and Portfolio Manager at EIT Urban Mobility. “Since 2024, we’ve been on this journey together and it was inspiring to see them gain such strong interest from investors. We look forward to continue supporting their expansion, and make rail more efficient, reliable, and sustainable.”
Futurail accelerates next phase of growth with fresh funding
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.
