Salt Lake City-based investment firm Genesis Electronics Group Inc. has acquired Glīd LLC, an autonomous electric railway shipping technology company, also based in Utah.
Glīd aims to take a slice of the trucking industry along with the global railroad shipping industry by deploying a new way to ship existing semi-trailers over the rails, Genesis said in a statement announcing the takeover. Glīd’s patent-pending technology enables two specially made “Glider” vehicles to independently and autonomously move under an unaltered fully loaded semitrailer, connect to both the king pin and rear axle and then lift the trailer. Once the trailer is lifted off the ground, the Gliders enter railroad tracks, deploy rail wheels and then transport the semi-trailer.
Braden Jones, CEO of Genesis, is also a co-founder of Glīd.
“We have been building Glīd in stealth mode for the past two years, and when an opportunity came along (with Genesis Electronics Group), we knew that we had merge the two together,” said Jones. “All of the new and exciting EV tech companies are generally only available for accredited investors or VC funds to invest in during the early stages. We wanted to shake up the industry and allow non-accredited investors to have an opportunity to be shareholders in such an exciting technology through purchasing already publicly traded shares of (Genesis) or through a follow-on public offering.”
“Glīd was born by asking this simple question: ‘how can we get autonomous electric vehicles on the road quicker than anyone else, without all of the Level 5 government restrictions?’”, Jones said. “What has followed over the past two years has been an exciting journey, discovering how to leverage the efficiencies of rail to transport traditional semi-trailers.”
Glīd anticipates that its prototype units will be operational and moving demonstrable cargo in the next four to six months. After these units pass the rail industry standard safety measures, they can become fully deployable, Jones said. He said the company is in discussions with railroad operators and trucking companies.
Genesis purchased Glīd for $4 million, $2 million in the form of convertible preferred stock and $2 million as a convertible note.