Gecko Robotics, which develops and operates robots to automate infrastructure inspections, has raised a Series B funding round of $40 million, led by Columbus-based Drive Capital. The Pittsburgh startup and Y-Combinator alum plans to use the funds to support its quickly scaling business operations, which have already grown from 45 to 115 employees in the past 12 months, focusing on hiring software and product engineers.
The round included participation from previous investors including Founders Fund, Next47 and Y Combinator.
Notable angel investors in this round of funding include Mark Cuban, Josh Reeves, CEO of Gusto, and Jake Seid. Previous angel investors include Justin Kan, founder and CEO of Atrium and Twitch, Gokul Rajaram of Doordash and Paul Buchheit, creator of Gmail and Partner at Y-Combinator.
Gecko began developing its technology in 2016. Today, the company is modernizing the industrial inspection industry with its wall climbing robot.
“At our core, we are a robot-enabled software company that helps stop life threatening catastrophes. We’ve developed a revolutionary way to use robots as an enabler to capture data for predictability of infrastructure; reducing failure, explosions, emissions and billions of dollars of loss each year,” Gecko’s 28-year-old co-founder and CEO Jake Loosararian said, in a statement.
Gecko focuses on industrial plant inspections using acoustic, laser, electromagnetic and other non-destructive testing modules. Once this massive amount of critical data has been gathered, Gecko’s software helps predict when and where infrastructure failure will occur.
“We are very excited for the future of robotics in industrial inspection. The Gecko Robotics team are revolutionizing an industry that is in need of a real upgrade and will save lives,” Drive Capital Lead Investor and Partner Mark Kvamme stated. “I see amazing potential for Gecko’s business model, they are on the path to become a market leader in their industry.”
The Pittsburgh-headquartered Gecko also has offices in Houston and Austin, Texas, and Europe.
Drive Capital is a private investment firm founded by Kvamme and Chris Olsen, formerly from Sequoia Capital. They partner with entrepreneurs in building long-term, sustainable businesses. Drive Capital invests in innovative technology, health care and consumer companies in the Midwest. They look for innovative entrepreneurs addressing big market opportunities.
