TechCrunch is excited to announce Swyft Cities won the TechCrunch Sessions: Mobility 2022 pitch-off and is fast-tracked into the Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt in October. Beyond Aero is runner-up.

The Mountain View-based company is committed to improving transportation through the use of autonomous, lightweight, fixed-cable vehicles. The company says that its solution offers a lower cost per mile with fewer carbon emissions than conventional transportation alternatives.

Swyft sees this as a new form of urban mobility that can solve transportation problems in densely developed areas, including corporate campuses, airports, universities and tourism districts.

The platform is novel in that the vehicles move on a stationary cable, allowing for new connections that can be added when needed. This adds capacity into an area, allowing higher density and more profitable developments. It also reduces costs on parking and traffic mitigation. In some areas, providing connections within the site can drive high value.

Beyond Aero, based out of Paris/Toulouse, France, is building long-range aircraft powered by hydrogen-electric propulsion. The first aircraft is a zero emission private aircraft (6-9 seat), designed for hydrogen propulsion, flying 1,000 miles in range.

Why Swyft was the top choice

Image Credits: Swyft Cities

The judges for the pitch-off – Yoon Choi (Muirwoods Ventures), Mar Hershenson (Pear VC) and Gabriel Scheer (Elemental Excelerator) on day one; and Sven Strohband (Khosla Ventures), Victoria Beasley (Prelude Ventures) and John Du (GM Ventures) on day two – largely thought Swyft Cities had a good direction and a very capable team. The judges said Swyft is approaching a growing problem with a novel solution and a competent go-to-market strategy.

Swyft Cities was founded in 2019 by some of the Google alums who were behind transportation and real estate programs at Google's campuses. They were tasked with investigating new forms of mobility that could help achieve what the startup now calls "district-scale transportation" in a way that both reduced car usage and created a better campus environment. The team, which included Swyft founder and CEO Jeral Poskey, reviewed ideas like underground tunnels and autonomous shuttles, but found that most infrastructure solutions existing today are built for long distance commutes, not short distance movement in dense environments.