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

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

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

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

Damoa pinpointed nan problem: nan 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 nan 20 Startup Battlefield finalists competing astatine TechCrunch Disrupt 2025.

Glīd isn’t trying to compete pinch trains. Instead, nan institution is focused connected that first mile from larboard to railroad arsenic good arsenic road-to-rail applications wrong ample business parks.

“The first mile is wherever each your problems happen,” he 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 still surgery and involves a bunch 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 short distances, wherever it’s past driven to a gangly stack. A forklift picks up nan instrumentality and moves it into nan stack. Later, a forklift is utilized to load it backmost onto a hostler truck, which past drives complete to nan railroad. A forklift aliases crane is past utilized to prime up nan instrumentality and load it connected a freight train, wherever it waits.

Glīd has developed respective hardware and package products to velocity up and trim nan costs of getting shipping containers to nan railhead and yet their destination. Its first is GliderM, a hybrid-electric conveyance pinch a hook connected nan backmost that tin prime up and move 20-foot containers straight to nan obstruction without nan request for forklifts of hostler trucks.

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

Image Credits:Glid Technologies

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

And nan costs building is compelling. By cutting retired forklifts and hostler trucks and utilizing nan railroad alternatively of semi trucks for delivery, Damoa said he is capable to connection nan company’s mobility-as-a-service strategy astatine nan fraction of nan cost. Customers are charged a$300,000 subscription a year, which gives them entree to gets a GliderM aliases Rāden and their logistics package 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 nan service. By comparison, nan per ton per mile costs coming — if nan transloading, train, and motortruck fees are included — is astir $2.27, according to Damoa.

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

Glīd’s tech and business exemplary has besides resonated pinch investors who spot imaginable successful nan tech and business model.

Damoa said nan first mates of years was hard, noting he couldn’t salary a personification to put successful Glīd. But erstwhile he went done nan Antler startup accelerator program, which gave him captious CEO and transportation skills, nan startup had much success. Glīd received an finance earlier building its first prototype.

The startup announced successful July it raised $3.1 cardinal successful a pre-seed backing information led by Outlander VC, pinch 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 pinch a post-money valuation of $35 million.

If you want to study much astir Glīd from nan institution itself — while besides checking retired dozens of others, proceeding their pitches, and listening to impermanent speakers connected 4 different stages — subordinate america astatine Disrupt, October 27 to 29 successful San Francisco. Learn much here.