KONUX
KONUX is a German technology company supplying AI-based predictive maintenance systems for railway switches and crossings, headquartered in Munich and working with infrastructure managers across Europe.
The company was founded in 2014 as a spin-off from the Technical University of Munich (TUM). It is venture-backed, with investors including New Enterprise Associates, and operates as KONUX GmbH.
What the company supplies
The core product is KONUX Switch, a predictive maintenance system for switches and crossings that combines trackside Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) sensors with machine-learning analytics. The sensors track how the crossing area moves and flexes under passing trains, picking up on early signs of ballast settlement and wear in components such as the frog.
The system builds a running condition profile for each monitored switch and projects how that condition will change — an application of digital twin technology to assets with an outsized share of infrastructure-related delays. Infrastructure managers use the projections to plan tamping and component replacement before failures occur.
A point machine and locking health monitoring use case within KONUX Switch extends the system to point operating equipment, diagnosing faults such as locking failures and failing motor components from electric current, pressure, vibration and weather data. Combined with track data, the analytics identify switches at high risk of sudden failure and trace faults back to underlying track condition.
Market position
KONUX won Deutsche Bahn’s 2020 tender for condition monitoring of switches, concluded as a long-term framework agreement and DB’s first cloud-based software-as-a-service infrastructure project — an early large-scale procurement of digital systems for the German network. The initial phase covered 650 switches digitalised by KONUX, and in 2023 DB extended the roll-out with 3,500 additional assets on its busiest routes.
In 2024, the Spanish infrastructure manager ADIF contracted KONUX to monitor 200 turnouts with KONUX Switch, including point machine and locking health monitoring. In the UK, the company works with Network Rail, including a 2024 collaboration with One Big Circle integrating predictive maintenance with intelligent video review of switches.
According to the company, its customers also include Infrabel. In 2022, KONUX Switch passed Deutsche Bahn’s own prediction verification procedure, which confirmed over 90% prediction accuracy for the first set of requirements. The company was named a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer in 2017.
Recent activity
KONUX widened its partner network through 2025: an integration with Smart Motors bringing electrical point machine monitoring into KONUX Switch for projects with ADIF in Spain and Italian regional operator FNM, a partnership with Australian infrastructure supplier Salix covering Australia and New Zealand, and a partnership with Rail Power Systems announced in December.
In February 2026, the company announced a strategic reset under CEO Johanna Leisch, describing 2026 as a year of focus. The stated aim is to concentrate resources on core products and customer partnerships and to move toward self-sustaining operation with reduced dependency on external funding.
