Gecko Robotics: 2024 CNBC Disruptor 50

Founders: Jake Loosararian (CEO), Troy Demmer
Launched: 2013
Headquarters: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Funding: $220 million
Valuation: $633 million
Key technologies: Artificial intelligence, digital twins, Internet of Things, robotics
Industry: Industrials
Previous appearances on Disruptor 50 List: 0

Trillions of dollars worth of bridges, roads, dams, factories and plants are rapidly aging across the U.S.

The bridge and highway collapses in Baltimore and Philadelphia seen in the last year, respectively, highlight just how critical, yet how tenuous the state of infrastructure across the U.S. is, and the issues that come with not maintaining it. By 2039, continued underinvestment in maintaining U.S. infrastructure is expected to cost more than $10 trillion in GDP and more than 3 million jobs, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.

But while investment is flowing into fixing those issues as a result of President Biden’s infrastructure act, one critical aspect of the process mostly remains unchanged: how infrastructure is inspected, monitored and subsequently maintained.

Traditionally, that has been done manually, with workers shutting down pieces of the infrastructure, scaling massive plants or dams to check for any issues. In addition to being arduous and dangerous, the process also can leave gaps in safety, efficiency and accuracy.

It’s that part of the infrastructure challenge that Gecko Robotics has looked to disrupt, using wall-climbing robots, ultrasonic technologies and AI-powered data insights to help companies and organizations ensure the availability, reliability and sustainability of critical infrastructure. 

The company’s technology has been used to inspect everything from power plants to oil refinery pipelines to chemical storage tanks, but Gecko Robotics has also rapidly moved into the military sector.

Gecko Robotics works with the U.S. Air Force around the modernization of strategic nuclear missile silos, and with the U.S. Navy to increase the speed of maintenance cycles for its surface fleet. It is also working with the Navy to increase the speed of its manufacturing process around its $132 billion Columbia-class nuclear submarine program.

The push into helping maintain defense equipment resulted in the company extending its Series C funding round by $100 million in December (for a total of $173 million), an investment led by the US Innovative Technology Fund and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, bringing its valuation to $633 million.

“Every day, at hundreds of customer sites around the world, our robots are keeping power plants online, military assets ready, and factory doors open,” Gecko Robotics CEO and co-founder Jake Loosararian said in an October press release.