Gecko Robotics is making inspection robots a data system for critical infrastructure

Gecko Robotics raised $125 million in Series D funding on June 12, 2025 at a $1.25 billion valuation. Cox Enterprises led the round, and CNBC reported total funding of $347 million, with USIT, XN, Founders Fund, and Y Combinator among investors. The financing supports a company that has moved from wall-climbing inspection robots into a data platform for critical infrastructure.

Jake Loosararian and Troy Demmer founded Gecko in 2013 after early work on a wall-climbing inspection robot at Grove City College. The original problem was practical: power plants, ships, tanks, and industrial assets are dangerous, slow, and expensive to inspect manually, while missing corrosion or structural degradation can create major safety and maintenance costs.

Cantilever is the software layer that explains Gecko's current valuation story. The platform integrates robotic scans, fixed-sensor data, partner systems, historical records, design files, operational data, and business metrics, then turns that record into corrosion analysis, remaining-life estimates, repair planning, and capital-allocation recommendations.

Defense and industrial use give the platform stronger context. Gecko has described Navy use of Cantilever for ship availability tracking, repair planning, and maintenance scheduling. Axios separately reported a Gecko and L3Harris collaboration around extended-reality aircraft maintenance, with high-resolution imagery stitched into Cantilever to create an aircraft digital twin after months of prototype testing with the U.S. military.

The competitive field includes Waygate/Baker Hughes inspection tools, Eddyfi/NDT providers, Flyability, ANYbotics inspection deployments, drones used for asset inspection, industrial digital-twin platforms, and in-house reliability teams. Gecko's distinction is the robot-collected data layer connected to asset decision software: the robot is a collection method, while Cantilever is the system of record Gecko wants customers to use for infrastructure decisions.

Public material still does not disclose customer-level retention, recurring software revenue, inspection accuracy by asset type, scan repeatability, or repair outcomes after Cantilever recommendations. The strategic question is whether Gecko can make asset truth a live operating layer for infrastructure owners. If inspection data, customer records, and predictive analysis keep converging inside Cantilever, Gecko becomes less of a robot inspection vendor and more of an infrastructure intelligence system for energy, defense, maritime, and manufacturing assets.

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