Glid Applied sciences is creating a brand new road-to-rail autonomous automobile known 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, at present 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 strategy to tackling essentially 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 remodel 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, shifting them by way of the system leveraging rail corridors. The twin-mode Gīders function seamlessly on each highway and rail. The automobiles transfer commonplace containers straight onto the rail community with out the necessity for terminals, drayage, or raise tools, enabling steady, on-demand freight stream.
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 business and contested environments, whether or not it’s accelerating throughput at congested ports, working throughout austere terrain, or strengthening provide chains for important industries, Glīd delivers the place legacy methods 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 doable in first-mile logistics. Rāden is an unmanned, hybrid-electric road-to-rail automobile, constructed to autonomously journey throughout each modes of infrastructure. With a low-profile design and clear LPG-based vary extension, Rāden could be deployed in complicated, off-grid, and high-throughput environments the place conventional logistics automobiles can not 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 business and protection domains.
With the funding, Glīd is shifting past analysis
This funding facilitates Glīd’s shift from analysis and growth to real-world deployment. The corporate mentioned it can use the capital to launch GliderM, a manned, hybrid-electric road-to-rail automobile, into area operations in California and Washington in Q3 2025.
GliderM is designed to maneuver 20-foot containers and heavy payloads straight from highway to rail with out forklifts or further transloading, which may cut back prices and enhance labor effectivity. Glīd will even advance the Rāden platform’s growth, broaden EZRA-1SIX capabilities, develop its engineering and enterprise growth groups, and strengthen partnerships with ports, rail operators, and authorities companies.
“The primary mile of our provide chain hasn’t developed because the creation of rail, and it’s now the most important bottleneck for shifting items. Glīd provides essentially the most well timed and revolutionary answer we’ve seen to repair it, from business freight to important protection logistics,” mentioned Jordan Kretchmer, Senior Companion at Outlander VC and Glīd board member. “With many years of expertise in rail and logistics, this staff 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 business and protection clients.
One of many differentiators for Glid Applied sciences is its administration and growth staff. CEO Kevin Damoa is a serial entrepreneur with a deep background in logistics who began with profession within the U.S. Military. The staff contains 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.
