Gradle requires Java and it can reuse all great features from the runtime. The drawback is that it takes several seconds to boot whole Groovy/Java engine after typing command: gradle.
There is simple way how to speed up Gradle: use daemon mode.
The easiest approach is to put following line into file ~/.gradle/gradle.properties:
org.gradle.daemon=true
Gradle will automatically spawn daemon process after the first execution of command gradle.
Every build is starting faster.
That’s nice, but daemon is sitting in the memory. You can shut down daemon by command:
gradle --stop
Interesting option for developers is to leave daemon in running in foreground and watch daemon in debug mode:
gradle --foreground --debug
More detailed info about Gradle daemon is available in Gradle manual.