After securing second place in the 2024 TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield, geCKo Materials made a return to this year’s event, unveiling a range of new products as it advances its efforts to bring its technology to market.
Dr. Capella Kerst, the company’s founder, introduced four innovative applications for geCKo’s ultra-strong dry adhesive: a tool for handling semiconductor wafers, a robotic gripper designed for smooth surfaces such as glass or solar panels, a curved robotic “end effector” tailored for handling irregular shapes, and a versatile gripper compatible with robotic arms.
geCKo’s technology draws inspiration from the way lizards naturally cling to surfaces with their feet. Kerst describes it as a next-generation Velcro—one that leaves no sticky residue, attaches and detaches rapidly, and operates without electricity or suction. A single one-inch square of the adhesive can support up to 16 pounds, and the dry adhesive can be used up to 120,000 times, maintaining its grip for seconds, minutes, or even years as needed.
The ease with which the dry adhesive can be integrated into current manufacturing, picking, and robotic systems has made it highly attractive. Even before appearing at last year’s Battlefield, Kerst’s company had already secured clients such as Ford, NASA, and Pacific Gas & Electric.
“Has this year gone by as fast for anyone else as it has for us?” Kerst remarked onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt on Wednesday. She shared that geCKo has tripled its team size since the previous year’s event and has raised $8 million in new funding. Over the past year, geCKo’s dry adhesive has been utilized in six space missions, demonstrating its effectiveness in a variety of settings, including the vacuum of space, according to Kerst.
During her presentation on Wednesday, Kerst demonstrated a Fanuc robotic arm equipped with six geCKo tiles, efficiently picking up and moving items, and also shared footage of other commercial uses.
One video featured geCKo’s material enabling the safe and rapid transfer of semiconductor wafers, outperforming traditional suction or vacuum technologies.
“Our partners at TSMC, Samsung, Intel, and Kawasaki challenged us to move wafers at 2Gs of acceleration,” she explained. “We decided to exceed expectations and achieved 5.4Gs of acceleration consistently and reliably with geCKo materials.”
