We’re thrilled to announce the newest HIVE Ventures portfolio company, Gecko Robotics. The startup, co-founded by Jake Loosararian, develops wall-climbing robots that are revolutionizing industrial and power plant inspections. HIVE Ventures participated in the $7 million round alongside the Founders Fund, Westly Group, Mark Cuban, Twitch founder Justin Kan, and Y Combinator. Gecko Robotics takes the time-intensive, dangerous process of manual industrial inspection and applies advanced remote-controlled robots to increase inspection efficiency while reducing the risk of human injury and/or death. Their robots are equipped with magnetic adhesion, sensor networks, and ultra-sonics, allowing for non-destructive testing on tankers, boilers, scrubbers, piping, and other infrastructure. With continuous data capture technology, Gecko Robotics can provide 100 times the information at a 10 times faster pace than traditional human inspection techniques.

Not only do their products keep people out of harm’s way, but Gecko can also more effectively detect cracking, pitting, and other forms of degradation in industrial settings. The unparalleled holistic view of a factory asset provides direct visibility into potentially unsafe areas and allows power plants to get ahead of maintenance before production is interrupted. HIVE Ventures is proud to support a company raising the safety standards of an industry that, in the words of Founders Fund partner Trae Stephens, has seen “virtually no innovation […] in decades”. Big congratulations to the team, and we can’t wait to watch you change the world of industrial services technology.

For additional details on the raise, see here. For videos of their robots in action, see here.