Swyft Cities Lands a Pilot in New Zealand for Its Elevated Gondola Transit

The most expensive real estate in a new development is often the land reserved for cars. Swyft Cities, a startup that grew out of a Google transportation program, is betting it can turn that asphalt into apartments, parks, and shops by running people above it all on cables.

Its system, called Whoosh, is essentially a network of small, autonomous electric cabins gliding on fixed elevated rails. It’s a gondola for daily commutes, designed to shuttle up to 10,000 people per hour at 30 miles per hour between stations placed every city block [City of Irvine, retrieved 2026]. The company sells it as a tool for real estate developers and city planners who want to build dense, walkable neighborhoods without surrendering half the plot to parking.

From Google's campus to city streets

The idea was prototyped internally at Google, where co-founders Jeral Poskey and Clay Griggs worked on the company’s transportation and real estate planning [SEC, 2024]. Poskey, the CEO, spent 14 years at Google after a stint at Dallas Area Rapid Transit. Griggs, the CTO, is an engineer with a background in automated transit systems. Their pitch is that they’re applying tech-company product thinking to a physical infrastructure problem that hasn’t changed much in a century.

The core of the bet is modularity. The guideways and stations are designed to be prefabricated and snapped together, theoretically allowing a network to start with a single line in a new district and expand as the neighborhood grows [SEC, 2024].

The first concrete steps

After raising just over $1 million in prior capital, including a seed round from Unpopular Ventures [KingsCrowd, 2024] [CB Insights, September 2022], Swyft is moving from concept to concrete. Its most advanced project is a pilot in Queenstown, New Zealand, slated for a 2027 launch [SFGate, retrieved 2026]. Closer to its Mountain View home, the city of Irvine, California, has voted to proceed with contract negotiations to install a Whoosh line in its Great Park, potentially for a 2028 opening [Orange County Register, retrieved 2026]. The company is also conducting a feasibility study with Sugar Land, Texas [Houston Chronicle, retrieved 2026].

These are not yet revenue-generating operations, but they represent the critical, grinding early work of public-private partnership that any infrastructure startup must navigate. The company has also brought on an advisor, Sia Kusha, who specializes in such funding models [PR.com, retrieved 2026].

The unit economics of moving air

The financial and climate case rests on a simple comparison: moving a small, lightweight cabin on a fixed cable versus moving a two-ton private car. Swyft claims its system has a lower cost per mile and fewer carbon emissions than conventional transit [TechCrunch, May 2022].

Where the wheels could come off

The ambition is vast, but the path is littered with the wreckage of other “future of transit” startups. The risks for Swyft are not small.

• The funding gap: Building physical infrastructure is capital-intensive. The company’s disclosed fundraising to date is modest at just over $1 million [KingsCrowd, 2024]. A 2024 Wefunder campaign with a $12 million target was marked ‘Not Funded’ [KingsCrowd, 2024].
• The sales cycle: Selling to municipalities and developers involves long timelines, complex approvals, and political risk.
• The competitive landscape: Swyft isn’t the only company rethinking small-scale transit. It lists competitors ranging from autonomous car companies like Waymo to other fixed-guideway systems like Glydways.

The company’s early traction with city governments suggests it’s navigating the political piece. The next twelve months will be about proving the technology and economics in the real world. The Queenstown pilot will be the first full-scale test of whether the Whoosh system can deliver on its promises of reliability, capacity, and cost.

Sources

1. [SEC, 2024] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2032958/000167025424000861/document_12.pdf
2. [City of Irvine, retrieved 2026] https://www.cityofirvine.org
3. [TechCrunch, May 2022] https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/19/swyft-cities-is-the-winner-of-the-techcrunch-mobility-2022-pitch-off/
4. [KingsCrowd, 2024] https://kingscrowd.com/swyft-cities-on-wefunder-2024/
5. [CB Insights, September 2022] https://www.cbinsights.com/company/swyft-cities/financials
6. [SFGate, retrieved 2026] https://www.sfgate.com
7. [Orange County Register, retrieved 2026] https://www.ocregister.com
8. [Houston Chronicle, retrieved 2026] https://www.houstonchronicle.com
9. [PR.com, retrieved 2026] https://www.pr.com