Kevin Damoa got here face-to-face with the challenges and risks of shifting 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 persevered via a 13-year stint with the U.S. Air Pressure 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 just a few.
But it surely 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 downside.
“I had my come-to-Jesus second,” Damoa recalled of the pivotal second when he determined to strike out on his personal. “I seemed 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 of us utilizing rail?’ After which, my 17-year-old self tapped me on the shoulder, was like, ‘As a result of it’s laborious to get issues from highway to rail.’”
Damoa pinpointed the issue: the advanced, multi-step course of shifting a container from a ship to a freight practice. He based Glīd Applied sciences to try to remedy 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 an alternative, the corporate is concentrated on that first mile from port to railroad in addition to road-to-rail functions inside massive 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 work out 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 automobile used to maneuver quick 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 scale back the price of getting transport containers to the railhead and finally their vacation spot. Its first is GliderM, a hybrid-electric automobile 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 also be growing logistics software program and an armored, low-profile platform referred to as the Rāden that may slide underneath any trailer, raise it, and transfer autonomous alongside the highway to rail.
“You may have a look at us because the baton racer,” he mentioned, describing the system. “We hand that load off to the subsequent to the center mile; the secret is utilization — you understand, what number of ontainers can we get inside that first mile, inside a day, in an effort to maximize our optimize our prices.”
And the price construction is compelling. By reducing out forklifts and hostler vans and utilizing the railroad as an alternative of semi vans for supply, Damoa mentioned he is ready to provide the corporate’s mobility-as-a-service system on the fraction of the price. Prospects are charged a$300,000 subscription a 12 months, which supplies them entry to will get 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 functional, plus the service. By comparability, the per ton per mile value right now — if the transloading, practice, and truck charges are included — is about $2.27, in accordance with Damoa.
The 14-person startup is concentrated on quick rail techniques, ports that personal the monitor, and industrial parks. Glīd has already signed offers with 4 quick 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 buyers who see potential within the tech and enterprise mannequin.
Damoa mentioned the primary couple of years was laborious, noting he couldn’t pay an individual to put money into Glīd. However as soon as he went via the Antler startup accelerator program, which gave him essential CEO and pitch abilities, the startup had extra success. Glīd acquired 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 buyers. 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 trying out dozens of others, listening to their pitches, and listening to visitor audio system on 4 completely different levels — be a part of us at Disrupt, October 27 to 29 in San Francisco. Be taught extra right here.
