Thousands of new startups are founded every year, despite considerable disruptions and challenges to the global economy. To introduce you to emerging technologies and startups in the railroads sector, we analyzed a total of 1.633 rail startups & scaleups.
Global Startup Heat Map reveals 5 Rail Startups You Should Watch in 2021
Out of 1.633, the 5 rail startups to watch this year are chosen through the Big Data & Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, covering over 1.3 million startups & scaleups globally. The platform gives you the most exhaustive collection of solutions and ensures you continuously discover new startups, scaleups, and technologies. This enables you to easily scout for rail technologies and startups that matter to you and drive innovation in your industry forward.
The Global Startup Heat Map below highlights the 5 rail startups you should watch in 2021 as well as the geo-distribution of the other 1.628 startups & scaleups we analyzed for this research. The 5 highlighted rail startups are hand-picked based on our data-driven startup scouting approach, taking into account factors such as location, founding year, relevance of technology, and funding, among others.
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Ariadne advances Crowd Analytics
Overcrowding at railway stations is a common challenge that lowers passenger experience and increases security risks. Capturing passenger data, however, enables operators to optimize train scheduling and passenger flow distribution. Therefore, rail startups develop passenger localization and analytics solutions to optimize passenger flows.
German startup Ariadne offers crowd analytics solutions for train operations. The startup uses a network of sensors that captures signals from passengers’ smart devices. It identifies the passengers’ direction, the purpose of the visit, as well as the most visited areas in the station. Additionally, Ariadne helps train operators differentiate between passengers who stay in town and passengers who continue their journey. This improves revenue sharing between rail companies.
MeduSoil works on Soil Erosion Solutions
Erosion processes along railroads necessitate frequent maintenance and may even lead to derailment. Common anti-erosion solutions, however, are based on cement or petrochemicals and negatively impact the environment. To this avail, startups develop mineralization solutions for embankment stabilization and slope erosion control across railway lines.
Swiss startup MeduSoil develops underground carbon mineralization solutions for handling soil erosion. The startup’s technology mineralizes carbonate particles to consolidate soils using non-polluting biochemicals. MeduSoil’s slope stabilization services reduce railroad maintenance frequency and increase the safety of rail operations.
Trendspek offers Rail Asset Management
Rail asset management is a multifaceted process that involves the building, continuous inspection, and maintenance, as well as development of rail infrastructure. Railway operators and contractors seek inspection automation solutions for remote asset management. Accordingly, startups provide rail virtualization solutions that enable asset trend monitoring, as well as inspection planning and analysis.
Australian startup Trendspek offers digital twins for rail asset management. The startup uses drones for 3D reality models, thermal models, LiDAR scans, and building information modeling (BIM) services. Trendspek allows asset managers to navigate, monitor, and markup digital twins of the assets. This enables effective maintenance of rail corridors, train stations, bridges, and level crossings.
Ratio Technologies provides Industrial Network Solutions
Accurate operation of train signaling systems is critical for efficient train networks and, more importantly, the safety of passengers and passers-by. Consequently, rail operators need suitable safety management procedures as well as proper equipment. Therefore startups provide research and development (R&D) services to build custom relays, switches, or level crossing systems for local railway signaling networks.
Turkish startup Ratio Technologies provides R&D services for industrial network optimization. The startup applies the theory of inventive problem-solving (Triz), V-Model, systems theory, as well as failure modes, effects, and diagnostic analysis (FMEDA) to find ideal solutions for mission-critical systems. To optimize the safety of railways, the startup develops a network switch suitable to local signaling system characteristics.
PANTOhealth delivers Predictive Maintenance
A train’s electric power supply system consists of the overhead catenary and a pantograph. The interaction of these separate dynamic systems directly affects the efficacy of locomotive operations. To prevent unexpected failure and optimize their maintenance, startups develop monitoring solutions that collect pantograph and catenary data.
German startup PANTOhealth develops a pantograph and catenary predictive maintenance solution. The solution consists of data collection hardware to capture pantograph temperature as well as the acceleration and location of the train. It also uses data analytics software to simulate the pantograph and catenary interaction. By applying machine learning (ML) algorithms to the collected data, PANTOhealth determines the state of the power supply system and develops its maintenance plan.
Discover all 1.633 Rail Startups
The 1.633 rail startups are only a small sample of what we identified during our research. Explore our free Railroads Industry Innovation Report for a broad overview of the industry or get in touch for quick & exhaustive research on the latest technologies and emerging solutions that will soon impact your company.
