Glīd is building an autonomous shortcut to move freight from road to rail — catch it at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025

Kevin Damoa came face-to-face with the challenges and dangers of moving freight from roadworthy to obstruction arsenic a 17-year-old U.S. Army enlistee tasked with loading tanks and Bradley warring vehicles onto the railroad. It was — arsenic the mechanical technologist and laminitis of Glīd Technologies puts it — the opening of his emotion communicative with logistics.

It’s a emotion communicative that persisted done a 13-year stint with the U.S. Air Force National Guard arsenic a firefighter to his roles successful the backstage assemblage astatine SpaceX, Northrup Grumman, Romeo Power Tech, and Xos Trucks — to sanction a few.

But it wasn’t until 2022, portion moving connected the Harley-Davidson e-bike marque spinoff Serial 1, that Damoa circled backmost to the road-to-rail problem.

“I had my come-to-Jesus moment,” Damoa recalled of the pivotal infinitesimal erstwhile helium decided to onslaught retired connected his own. “I looked astir the globe, and I was like, ‘OK, obstruction is broken, ports are truly congested, roads are congested, the fatalities connected roads are crazy. Why aren’t much folks utilizing rail?’ And then, my 17-year-old aforesaid tapped maine connected the shoulder, was like, ‘Because it’s hard to get things from roadworthy to rail.’”

Damoa pinpointed the problem: the complex, multi-step process moving a instrumentality from a vessel to a freight train. He founded Glīd Technologies to effort and lick it. The California-based startup (pronounced Glide) is among the 20 Startup Battlefield finalists competing astatine TechCrunch Disrupt 2025.

Glīd isn’t trying to vie with trains. Instead, the institution is focused connected that archetypal mile from larboard to railroad arsenic good arsenic road-to-rail applications wrong ample concern parks.

“The archetypal mile is wherever each your problems happen,” helium said. “This is wherever you unload ships and stack up your containers and past fig retired wherever they’re intended to spell to. That process is inactive breached and involves a clump of steps.”

Once a vessel arrives astatine port, a crane picks up a instrumentality and loads it onto a hostler truck, a conveyance utilized to maneuver abbreviated distances, wherever it’s past driven to a gangly stack. A forklift picks up the instrumentality and moves it into the stack. Later, a forklift is utilized to load it backmost onto a hostler truck, which past drives implicit to the railroad. A forklift oregon crane is past utilized to prime up the instrumentality and load it connected a freight train, wherever it waits.

Glīd has developed respective hardware and bundle products to velocity up and trim the outgo of getting shipping containers to the railhead and yet their destination. Its archetypal is GliderM, a hybrid-electric conveyance with a hook connected the backmost that tin prime up and determination 20-foot containers straight to the obstruction without the request for forklifts of hostler trucks.

The startup is besides processing logistics bundle and an armored, low-profile level called the Rāden that tin descent nether immoderate trailer, assistance it, and determination autonomous on the roadworthy to rail.

Image Credits:Glid Technologies

“You tin look astatine america arsenic the baton racer,” helium said, describing the system. “We manus that load disconnected to the adjacent to the mediate mile; the sanction of the crippled is utilization — you know, however galore ontainers tin we get wrong that archetypal mile, wrong a day, successful bid to maximize our optimize our costs.”

And the outgo operation is compelling. By cutting retired forklifts and hostler trucks and utilizing the railroad alternatively of semi trucks for delivery, Damoa said helium is capable to connection the company’s mobility-as-a-service strategy astatine the fraction of the cost. Customers are charged a$300,000 subscription a year, which gives them entree to gets a GliderM oregon Rāden and their logistics bundle called EZRA-1SIX. Customers are besides charged 8 cents per ton per mile. Damoa said that’s a woody since companies are getting a train, truck, and a forklift each successful one, positive the service. By comparison, the per ton per mile outgo contiguous — if the transloading, train, and motortruck fees are included — is astir $2.27, according to Damoa.

The 14-person startup is focused connected abbreviated obstruction systems, ports that ain the track, and concern parks. Glīd has already signed deals with 4 abbreviated enactment railroads arsenic good arsenic the Port of Woodland successful Washington, Taylor Transport retired of Vancouver, and Great Plains Industrial Park, a 6,800-acre tract successful Kansas with 30 miles of interior obstruction lines and an onsite transload facility.

Glīd’s tech and concern exemplary has besides resonated with investors who spot imaginable successful the tech and concern model.

Damoa said the archetypal mates of years was hard, noting helium couldn’t wage a idiosyncratic to put successful Glīd. But erstwhile helium went done the Antler startup accelerator program, which gave him captious CEO and transportation skills, the startup had much success. Glīd received an concern earlier gathering its archetypal prototype.

The startup announced successful July it raised $3.1 cardinal successful a pre-seed backing circular led by Outlander VC, with information from Draper U Ventures, Antler, The Veteran Fund, M1C, and angel investors. It has since raised more, putting its full astatine $7.1 cardinal with a post-money valuation of $35 million.

If you privation to larn much astir Glīd from the institution itself — portion besides checking retired dozens of others, proceeding their pitches, and listening to impermanent speakers connected 4 antithetic stages — articulation america astatine Disrupt, October 27 to 29 successful San Francisco. Learn much here.