HOLDING ASSESSORIA I LIDERATGE SL

Their core work

HAL SL is a Barcelona-based micro-SME that developed TRAINSFARE — an AI-powered system designed to detect fare evasion, protect revenues, and improve passenger safety on public transport networks. Their entire known portfolio centers on this single product concept, which they took from a feasibility study (SME Instrument Phase 1, 2015) through to a full market deployment project (SME Instrument Phase 2, 2017–2020). Their real-world contribution is in the intersection of artificial intelligence, transit security, and revenue assurance for public transport operators. As a holding and advisory company by name, they likely combine technical product development with business development and commercialization support.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

HAL SL's entire H2020 participation is built around one product concept — TRAINSFARE — at two stages of maturity. In 2015, the focus was on proving technical and commercial feasibility of an AI-based fare evasion system (Phase 1, coordinator role). By 2017, the scope had broadened from fare evasion alone to a wider platform covering revenues, assets, passenger safety, and urban mobility, with the organization appearing as a third party rather than lead. There is no meaningful diversification of expertise to analyze — this is a single-product company deepening one niche rather than expanding into new territory.

HAL SL is moving from a narrow anti-fare-evasion tool toward a broader transit security and revenue management platform, but their entire trajectory depends on whether TRAINSFARE achieved commercial traction after the Phase 2 project ended in 2020.

How they like to work

HAL SL coordinated the Phase 1 feasibility study independently, consistent with a founder-led startup developing its own IP. In Phase 2 they appear as a third party — meaning another organization took the lead coordinator role, which may reflect a commercial arrangement, spin-off, or partnership where HAL contributed specific IP or advisory capacity rather than managing the project. Their network is exceptionally narrow: one partner, one country, suggesting they operate as a tight core team rather than as a broad consortium builder.

HAL SL has collaborated with only one unique partner across both projects, entirely within Spain. This is one of the most concentrated networks observable in H2020 data and points to a company that prefers deep bilateral partnerships over wide consortia.

What sets them apart

HAL SL occupies an unusually specific niche: AI-based protection of public transport revenues, which is a concrete, monetizable problem for every transit operator in Europe facing annual fare evasion losses running into hundreds of millions of euros. Unlike research groups that study the problem theoretically, HAL approached it as a product company using the SME Instrument — meaning their goal from day one was a deployable commercial solution. Any consortium needing a private-sector partner with a working transport security product concept, rather than academic expertise, would find their profile useful.

Highlights from their portfolio

• TRAINSFARE
  A rare case of a single product concept successfully progressing through both Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the EU SME Instrument — from a €50,000 feasibility study in 2015 to a full three-year market-entry project by 2017, demonstrating commercial viability validation at EU level.
• TRAINSFARE
  The Phase 2 project expanded the original fare evasion scope into a multi-layered platform covering revenues, assets, passenger safety, and urban mobility — signaling ambition to become a comprehensive transit security product rather than a single-function tool.