Gecko Robotics, the Pittsburgh-based robotics and defense firm, will soon open a new manufacturing facility in the Sewickley area.
The company announced the plans for the 10,000-square-foot facility at the 2026 Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit, which wrapped up yesterday in Carlisle. The facility will sit at an industrial park in Aleppo Township, which also hosts an Amazon warehouse, about 3 miles from Sewickley’s business district.
“Robots are moving in as we speak,” Steve Bourner, a Gecko spokesman, told TribLive Thursday morning.
Gecko, headquartered in Nova Place on Pittsburgh’s North Side, was founded in 2013 by CEO Jake Loosararian and President Troy Demmer, both Grove City College graduates. It is now valued at $1.25 billion.
Much of the company’s work focuses on inspecting and maintaining existing infrastructure using robots. That includes submarine hulls, ship decking and missile silos, according to Gecko’s website.
Bourner said government defense contracts are the bulk of Gecko’s business, but the company also works with commerical users in industries like oil, power and mining.
The company’s Sewickley facility, however, will focus on building components for “defense manufacturing,” which Bourner said would mainly aid the Navy in more rapid shipbuilding.
The “bespoke facility” is a move toward building and manufacturing in the defense industry instead of solely maintanance, Bourner said.
“We want to be one of the leaders in this space,” he said.
Bourner said it would be a matter of weeks until the facility is up and running.
In addition to its Pittsburgh headquarters, Gecko also maintains and offices and development spaces in Houston, Boston, New York City, Washington D.C. and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.