Kevin Damoa got here face-to-face with the challenges and risks of transferring freight from highway to rail as a 17-year-old U.S. Military enlistee tasked with loading tanks and Bradley preventing autos onto the railroad. It was — because the mechanical engineer and founding father of Glīd Applied sciences places it — the start of his love story with logistics.
It’s a love story that continued by means of a 13-year stint with the U.S. Air Power Nationwide Guard as a firefighter to his roles within the non-public sector at SpaceX, Northrup Grumman, Romeo Energy Tech, and Xos Vans — to call a couple of.
However it wasn’t till 2022, whereas engaged on the Harley-Davidson e-bike model spinoff Serial 1, that Damoa circled again to the road-to-rail drawback.
“I had my come-to-Jesus second,” Damoa recalled of the pivotal second when he determined to strike out on his personal. “I regarded across the globe, and I used to be like, ‘OK, rail is damaged, ports are actually congested, roads are congested, the fatalities on roads are loopy. Why aren’t extra people utilizing rail?’ After which, my 17-year-old self tapped me on the shoulder, was like, ‘As a result of it’s exhausting to get issues from highway to rail.’”
Damoa pinpointed the issue: the complicated, multi-step course of transferring a container from a ship to a freight practice. He based Glīd Applied sciences to attempt to clear up it. The California-based startup (pronounced Glide) is among the many 20 Startup Battlefield finalists competing at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025.
Glīd isn’t attempting to compete with trains. As a substitute, the corporate is targeted on that first mile from port to railroad, in addition to road-to-rail purposes inside giant industrial parks.
“The primary mile is the place all of your issues occur,” he mentioned. “That is the place you unload ships and stack up your containers after which determine the place they’re meant to go to. That course of continues to be damaged and includes a bunch of steps.”
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As soon as a ship arrives at port, a crane picks up a container and masses it onto a hostler truck, a car used to maneuver brief distances, the place it’s then pushed to a tall stack. A forklift picks up the container and strikes it into the stack. Later, a forklift is used to load it again onto a hostler truck, which then drives over to the railroad. A forklift or crane is then used to choose up the container and cargo it on a freight practice, the place it waits.
Glīd has developed a number of {hardware} and software program merchandise to hurry up and cut back the price of getting delivery containers to the railhead and ultimately their vacation spot. Its first is GliderM, a hybrid-electric car with a hook on the again that may decide up and transfer 20-foot containers on to the rail with out the necessity for forklifts of hostler vans.
The startup can be growing logistics software program and an armored, low-profile platform referred to as the Rāden that may slide underneath any trailer, elevate it, and transfer autonomously alongside the highway to rail.
“You possibly can have a look at us because the baton racer,” he mentioned, describing the system. “We hand that load off to the following to the center mile; the secret is utilization — you recognize, what number of containers can we get inside that first mile, inside a day, in an effort to maximize or optimize our prices.”
And the fee construction is compelling. By slicing out forklifts and hostler vans and utilizing the railroad as a substitute of semi vans for supply, Damoa mentioned he is ready to provide the corporate’s mobility-as-a-service system at a fraction of the fee. Prospects are charged a$300,000 subscription a yr, which provides them entry to a GliderM or Rāden and their logistics software program referred to as EZRA-1SIX. Prospects are additionally charged 8 cents per ton per mile. Damoa mentioned that’s a deal since firms are getting a practice, truck, and a forklift multi function, plus the service. By comparability, the per ton per mile price right now — if the transloading, practice, and truck charges are included — is about $2.27, in keeping with Damoa.
The 14-person startup is targeted on brief rail programs, ports that personal the monitor, and industrial parks. Glīd has already signed offers with 4 short-line railroads in addition to the Port of Woodland in Washington, Taylor Transport out of Vancouver, and Nice Plains Industrial Park, a 6,800-acre website in Kansas with 30 miles of inside rail traces and an onsite transload facility.
Glīd’s tech and enterprise mannequin has additionally resonated with traders who see potential within the tech and enterprise mannequin.
Damoa mentioned the primary couple of years was exhausting, noting he couldn’t pay an individual to put money into Glīd. However as soon as he went by means of the Antler startup accelerator program, which gave him vital CEO and pitch expertise, the startup had extra success. Glīd obtained an funding earlier than constructing its first prototype.
The startup introduced in July it raised $3.1 million in a pre-seed funding spherical led by Outlander VC, with participation from Draper U Ventures, Antler, The Veteran Fund, M1C, and angel traders. It has since raised extra, placing its complete at $7.1 million with a post-money valuation of $35 million.
If you wish to study extra about Glīd from the corporate itself — whereas additionally testing dozens of others, listening to their pitches, and listening to visitor audio system on 4 totally different levels — be a part of us at Disrupt, October 27 to 29 in San Francisco. Be taught extra right here.