money moves
Industrial robotics company raises $73M series C, prepares to grow Houston office
A Pittsburgh-based tech company that has created a hardware and software solution for industrial asset management has closed its latest round of funding.
Gecko Robotics, which has a growing Houston office, has closed its series C funding round at $73 million. The round was led by XN with participation from Founders Fund, XYZ, Drive Capital, Snowpoint Ventures, Joe Lonsdale, Mark Cuban, Gokul Rajaram, and others.
Gecko's Houston office was stood up in 2019 as a way to further grow oil and gas industry customers. Gecko has over 100 customers within infrastructure, power, energy, and more, Troy Demmer, chief product officer and co-founder, tells InnovationMap. Gecko's customers include Dow Chemical, Marathon, Shell, and Chevron, to name a few.
“By opening up an office in Houston, we could not only better serve power generation customers in that region, but also really plant ourselves as a provider for oil and gas," Demmer says.
The company's technology includes wall-climbing robots that can collect data on customer's equipment. The software component transform the collected data into actionable solutions. Demmer founded the company with CEO Jake Loosararian to, according to their mission statement, "protect today’s critical infrastructure, and give form to tomorrow’s."
“Our goal is really to digitize these industries and make them more safe and environmentally friendly and really make it a place where innovation happens," Demmer tells InnovationMap.
Demmer says the goal is to double their headcount over the next 12 to 18 months following this fresh funding. The company currently has 180 employees, with around 50 to 60 people based in their Houston office. Gecko has offices in Austin, New York City, Boston, and Europe.
"Gecko's unique combination of robotics and software radically improves the ability to inspect, protect, and efficiently maintain critical infrastructure," says Tim Brown, partner at XN and lead investor in the round, in the press release. We are excited to partner with Jake and Troy as they extend Gecko's powerful technology into new geographies and industries, helping customers collect and make sense of physical data to optimize the safety and performance of their assets."
The Baylor campus is next to Texas Medical Center’s Helix Park, a 37-acre project. Rendering courtesy of BCM
The Cullen Foundation donated $30 million to the project. Rendering courtesy of BCM