Glid Applied sciences is creating a brand new road-to-rail autonomous car referred to as a “Glider” to automate materials motion. | Credit score: Glid Applied sciences
Glīd Applied sciences, a developer of autonomous road-to-rail options for the essential “first mile” of freight motion, as we speak introduced the profitable shut of its oversubscribed $3.1 million pre-seed funding spherical. The funding, led by Outlander VC with participation from Draper U Ventures, Antler, The Veteran Fund, M1C, and a coalition of mission-aligned angel traders, underscores rising confidence in Glīd’s method to tackling probably the most congested and expensive section of the worldwide provide chain.
With the freight market projected to exceed $20 trillion by 2033, Glīd’s autonomous, dual-mode Gīders are poised to rework static rail corridors into dynamic, high-throughput supply networks. This, it says, eliminates the friction and inefficiencies that plague present logistics operations.
Glīd designed the answer to autonomously deal with containers at ports and transit yards, transferring them by the system leveraging rail corridors. The twin-mode Gīders function seamlessly on each highway and rail. The autos transfer normal containers instantly onto the rail community with out the necessity for terminals, drayage, or carry gear, enabling steady, on-demand freight circulation.
Kevin A. Damoa, founder and CEO of Glīd, advised The Robotic Report, “We’re constructing the logistics infrastructure of tomorrow—autonomous, resilient, and safe for each industrial and contested environments, whether or not it’s accelerating throughput at congested ports, working throughout austere terrain, or strengthening provide chains for crucial industries, Glīd delivers the place legacy programs fail. This isn’t simply automation. It’s sovereignty. It’s safety. And it’s what American innovation is constructed for.”
The corporate lately unveiled two breakthrough applied sciences that redefine what’s attainable in first-mile logistics. Rāden is an unmanned, hybrid-electric road-to-rail car, constructed to autonomously journey throughout each modes of infrastructure. With a low-profile design and clear LPG-based vary extension, Rāden might be deployed in advanced, off-grid, and high-throughput environments the place conventional logistics autos can’t go.
Alongside Rāden, Glīd debuted EZRA-1SIX, its proprietary AI logistics orchestration platform. This clever system powers real-time dispatch, multimodal autonomy, and safe, human-in-the-loop operations throughout industrial and protection domains.
With the funding, Glīd is transferring past analysis
This funding facilitates Glīd’s shift from analysis and improvement to real-world deployment. The corporate mentioned it can use the capital to launch GliderM, a manned, hybrid-electric road-to-rail car, into subject operations in California and Washington in Q3 2025.
GliderM is designed to maneuver 20-foot containers and heavy payloads instantly from highway to rail with out forklifts or further transloading, which might scale back prices and enhance labor effectivity. Glīd will even advance the Rāden platform’s improvement, develop EZRA-1SIX capabilities, develop its engineering and enterprise improvement groups, and strengthen partnerships with ports, rail operators, and authorities companies.
“The primary mile of our provide chain hasn’t developed for the reason that introduction of rail, and it’s now the largest bottleneck for transferring items. Glīd affords probably the most well timed and modern resolution we’ve seen to repair it, from industrial freight to crucial protection logistics,” mentioned Jordan Kretchmer, Senior Companion at Outlander VC and Glīd board member. “With a long time of expertise in rail and logistics, this group is uniquely positioned to steer the transformation.”
The corporate’s enterprise mannequin is a robots-as-a-service subscription that it describes as Mobility-as-a-Service. Damoa has his sights set on creating a big fleet of Gliders that may be redeployed across the nation as wanted, to satisfy the logistics wants for each industrial and protection prospects.
One of many differentiators for Glid Applied sciences is its administration and improvement group. CEO Kevin Damoa is a serial entrepreneur with a deep background in logistics who began with profession within the U.S. Military. The group consists of Chaitali Narla, CTO; Tony Petraborg, Chief Engineer; and Matt Mueller, COO.
Pictured left to proper: Chaitali Narla, CTO; Kevin A. Damoa, Founder and CEO; Tony Petraborg, Chief Engineer; and Matt Mueller, COO.
