Glīd Wins TechCrunch Startup Battlefield at Disrupt 2025
From Riverside Pitch to Global Stage: A Success Story for the Books
We are thrilled to congratulate Glīd, one of the standout companies in our EPIC portfolio, for winning the grand prize at the TechCrunch Startup Battlefield at Disrupt 2025.
Glīd’s journey began in April when they applied to our regional pitch competition here in Riverside. Their ambition and tech earned them a spot in the Riverside County-wide finals of the Startup World Cup Riverside County Final, a win that propelled them to the global Startup World Cup finals in San Francisco. From there they ascended to the international stage and took home the top prize at Disrupt.
What makes Glīd remarkable is their solution: they’ve developed a sophisticated mix of hardware and software that eliminates major bottlenecks in container logistics, specifically bridging the “ship-to-rail” gap. Their first product, “GliderM,” is a hybrid-electric yard vehicle capable of moving 20-foot shipping containers directly to rail without using forklifts or hostler trucks.
Our role? As part of the EPIC ecosystem, we offered critical support from the early stages:
We helped Glīd refine their pitch and business model during our Riverside Regional program.
We connected them with mentors, local industry contacts, and regional infrastructure resources to validate their concept in our Inland Southern California logistics ecosystem.
We cheered them on as they scaled from county-level competition to national and now global recognition.
Glīd exemplifies what happens when local innovation meets global ambition and when regional support ecosystems invest in deep-tech founders with big vision. We are proud to see Glīd’s success and look forward to their next milestones in logistics, freight automation, and supply-chain transformation.
Congratulations to the Glīd team and to the EPIC network for making this possible!