As it starts to work out of its new headquarters at Nova Place on the North Side, Gecko Robotics is already working with a higher ceiling as part of the physical requirements of its build out.
Now that Faros Properties has cut out the ceiling above the company's new R&D space, allowing its robots to crawl higher in their testing, Gecko Robotics is now shooting to reach a much higher figurative ceiling.
Jake Loosararian, CEO of the nearly 10-year-old company, introduced the new 70,000-square-foot office to a mix of staff and visiting onlookers, including tech industry leaders and local politicians, lead by Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey and Allegheny County Chief Executive Rich Fitzgerald.
He explained the basic rationale of the company and its robots, which Gecko designs to help to detect the prospect of failing pipes and other infrastructure, using an ultrasonic signal to detect a metal's thickness.
"What we're doing is making sure that things that we rely on every single day won't fail us," he said.
By deploying its robots in a variety of industrial environments to help detect their weak points, Gecko has quickly generated a growing list of Fortune 500 clients as well as with public agencies such as the Department of Defense.
The company celebrated the opening of its new office a little more than a month after it raised $73 million, bringing its total to more than $122 million since it first began raising venture funding a little more than five years ago.
The relevance of Gecko's approach and expertise is all the more apparent in a city that experienced the sudden failure of the Fern Hollow Bridge a few months ago and in a country struggling with major challenges of neglected infrastructure of all kinds.
Audrey Russo, president and CEO of the Pittsburgh Technology Council, observed how Gecko Robotics is "actually solving problems that people need" and added the company's new presence, including a 30,000-square-foot accelerator space for research and development, brings a new definition of mixed-use to Nova Place.
Gainey described the company as an example of "the future for a better tomorrow for our city."
Jeremy Leventhal, a principal of Faros Properties, the owner of Nova Place, detailed the various needs the company had for its build out, which was designed by Strip District-based Next Architecture and built out by Burns Scalo Real Estate Services.
Along with removing the ceiling above the R&D facility, the company needed special HVAC venting, among others.
Faros was happy to do it at relative expense for a project Leventhal said was less expensive than building out wet lab or data center space.
As far as having them at Nova Place, a repurposed former shopping mall, Leventhal said "it's amazing," and added "it's just such a statement for the city and region."
Already growing quickly, Loosararian expects the staff of approximately 200 people, for which the new office is outfitted, could double to 400 in the next year as well.
The company is already poised for expansion, with an option agreement in place with landlord Faros Properties to take an additional 80,000 square feet, if and when it's needed.
Loosararian sees a vast need for Gecko's services given all the long-neglected infrastructure in the United States now, noting the growing number of power black outs and other challenges.
"These are secrets hiding in plain sight," he said.
