Four startups taking part in the sixth edition of TrenLab, Renfe’s innovation accelerator, have presented their pilot projects to the company, showcasing advanced solutions designed to improve customer service and operational efficiency.
Among the pilots are a generative AI conversational assistant and a remote inspection system for rail maintenance. Renfe will now evaluate the proposals to determine whether they meet its operational needs and whether to invest up to EUR 1 million in one or more of these technologies.
Renfe evaluates pilots from four tech startups
The event, known as ‘Demo Day’, was chaired by Sonia Araujo, Renfe’s Director General for Innovation, Sustainability and Digital Transformation. The four startups presented their projects to senior managers from across the Renfe Group after six months of collaborative development with the company’s internal teams.
Each participant received €50,000 in funding to develop their prototype, along with mentorship and technical guidance from Renfe experts. The company will now assess the performance of each pilot and consider potential contracts of up to EUR 1 million to integrate the solutions into its operations — reaffirming TrenLab’s mission to drive innovation and digital transformation within Renfe.
The pilot projects
Turing Challenge presented a generative AI conversational assistant capable of delivering personalised, multichannel and real-time customer service. The solution allows travellers to interact with three types of agents:
- a routing agent that directs queries to the appropriate channel,
- an information agent that provides official Renfe responses, and
- a management agent that enables passengers to open and track incidents through a helpdesk system.
Robot Technology Solutions showcased its digital travel companion, which enhances the passenger experience before, during and after each journey. Powered by artificial intelligence, the system provides real-time assistance on timetables, disruptions, accessibility, connections and points of interest, delivering faster, more accurate, and more personalised communication with customers.
CYRACO GmbH presented a remote inspection system using AI and augmented reality to improve the collection of technical data during rolling stock maintenance. The technology can boost operational efficiency by up to 300%, supporting inspection tasks through intelligent data capture, smart diagnostics and enhanced management of components and technical reports — all while strengthening safety, traceability and reliability.
QCentroid, winner of the ‘Operational Efficiency through Quantum Computing’ challenge, demonstrated its pilot for identifying use cases that apply quantum computing to optimise logistics, scheduling, resource allocation and cybersecurity. The project opens up new opportunities for advanced process optimisation across Renfe’s core operations.
TrenLab – fostering innovation in rail
Since its launch, TrenLab has become one of the leading open innovation platforms in the rail industry. More than 1,000 startups have participated across its six editions, with 26 successfully accelerated. Several of these collaborations have already evolved into commercial contracts worth over EUR 6 million.
With this sixth call, Renfe reaffirms its commitment to technological innovation as a lever for improving mobility, achieving greater operational efficiency and sustainability, and strengthening cooperation with the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
More information on challenges, startups and projects is available at www.trenlab.es
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