DATFID Selected for SPRIND's Deutschland, was geht? Mission

We have some exciting news to share: DATFID Transit has been selected by SPRIND — Germany's Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation — for the funded prototyping phase of the national mission Deutschland, was geht?

Out of thousands of applicants, only 20 teams across all of Germany were chosen. We are proud to be one of them.

What is Deutschland, was geht?

Deutschland, was geht? is a joint initiative of SPRIND and the Federal Ministry of Digitalization and State Modernisation (BMDS). The premise is simple: bureaucracy shouldn't hold Germany back.

Over the past months, exactly 27,707 citizens, entrepreneurs, and public-sector employees submitted reports describing where everyday interactions with government fail them — too many forms, too much waiting, too much duplication. SPRIND collected these signals, distilled them into 14 concrete problem areas, and then opened a public vote to decide which to tackle first.

The result was clear. Citizens ranked making public transport easier as the top priority. That is where DATFID Transit comes in.

What DATFID Transit does

DATFID Transit builds a digital tool that helps municipalities plan bus and train stops more intelligently. Instead of fixing a reference point and asking "where should the next stop be?", the tool works the other way round: it calculates, from walking distances, population data, and existing connections, where real service gaps in local public transport actually exist.

The official SPRIND team description puts it well:

The team builds a digital tool that helps municipalities plan bus and train stops better. Rather than deciding from fixed reference points where a new stop would make sense, the tool uses walking distances, population data, and existing connections to calculate where genuine coverage gaps in local public transport exist. DATFID Transit comes from the Technical University of Munich, has already built a prototype, and works together with the City of Munich.

This is interpretable AI applied to public infrastructure — not a black-box score that says "add a stop here", but a transparent, data-driven analysis that shows decision-makers exactly why a gap exists and which levers close it. The same core idea that drives DATFID's B2B platform: don't just predict an outcome — show what causes it and what moves it.

Why this mission matters

Bureaucratic friction costs the German economy up to €146 billion per year, according to the ifo Institute. Of all the problems citizens flagged, poor public-transport coverage and complexity topped the list — a problem that affects commuters, municipalities, and the national climate transition all at once.

SPRIND and BMDS designed the mission to produce solutions that are not just functional prototypes, but tools that can realistically be integrated into the Bundesverwaltung starting in 2027. That means real-world impact at scale, not a demo.

What happens next

The prototyping phase runs from September through December 2026. SPRIND provides each selected team with up to €25,000 in seed funding, hands-on mentoring, and direct access to public-sector experts and administration champions — civil servants embedded as dedicated contacts for each team.

At the end of the phase, a jury evaluates all prototypes. The strongest teams will be invited to the Ministerpitch — a final presentation before Federal Digital Minister Dr. Karsten Wildberger. Teams that succeed there have the chance to receive a further €100,000 and begin official integration into German federal administration in 2027.

We are grateful to SPRIND and the BMDS for this opportunity, and to the thousands of citizens who voted for better public transport as a national priority. We are committed to building something that genuinely works — transparent, rigorous, and ready for the real world.

You can see the full team listing on the official SPRIND mission page.