HISTORY AND EVOLUTION
In a world that marginalizes dysfunctional people, Gogoa is committed to an inclusive future by designing high-tech robotics and industrial products. This is the work we're doing to get there, and what we're learning along the way.
THE ROAD TO THE REVOLUTION – FIRST STEPS
MAIN MILESTONES - TIMELINE
28 July, 2015– Constitution of Gogoa Mobility Robots (Gogoa Group)
October 2015- Fast Track to Innovation (FTI) HANK project, R&D project for the transfer of technology from the CSIC to Gogoa for the industrialization and placing on the market of an exoskeleton for lower limbs €1.4 M
2016- Best valued company in the call of the Ministry of science and technology of Spain, NEOTEC, 91/100
Certification as a manufacturer of medical equipment.
2017- Finalist Toribio Echevarria Award.
2018- Gogoa selected as one of the 20 companies that marks the technological evolution of the last 40 years in Spain, within the framework of the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Spanish Constitution.
First European company with a rehabilitation exoskeleton with a class 2 CE certificate for a lower limb exoskeleton.
Development of clinical trials at the Santa Lucia Foundation (Rome), TIRR Memorial (Houston), Toledo National Hospital for Paraplegics (Toledo), Product demonstrations in Germany, France, and Japan
Opening of the ONBIDERATU robotic neurorehabilitation technology demonstration center
2019- Opening of new facilities in Abadiño -Bizkaia.
Designation of GOGOA as INNOVATIVE SME by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.
SME Instrument Phase II, a European project to integrate FES technology, industrialize and carry out clinical trials with the BELK exoskeleton.
SME Instrument project of the European Commission for the development of BELK knee exoskeleton with integrated functional electrostimulation, €1.2 M
Development of the first industrial exoskeletons, birth of CYBER HUMAN SYSTEMS.
LEVIER, a Gogoa spin-off financed by the Ekintzaile program to support inter-learning of the Basque Government, is set up.
2020- First European company with an exoskeleton for the rehabilitation of a joint with a CE class 2a certificate in
July 2020 - First European exoskeleton manufacturing company with ISO 13485:2018 quality certificate as a manufacturer of medical equipment in September 2020.
2021- Quality InnovaNon Award Prize Winner in the category of Health Care Sector InnovaNons, in January 2021.
Collaboration agreement for the development of the MOVEX CLINICS franchise and opening of the first rehabilitation center in Bilbao.
This story is not over, we still have a lot to keep working on...
In 2012, at BIB (Business Innovation Brokers), a strategic consultancy boutique, we had the mandate to identify new business opportunities for the economic reactivation of the Urola Garaia region in Gipuzkoa. We are in the oldest region in Spain, with a large volume of residences for the elderly, home care services and a commercial hospital in Zumárraga. We identified that all the technical assistance used in the public health service was foreign and we saw the opportunity to develop products locally.
After an exhaustive analysis, we found emerging technologies aimed at the maintenance and rehabilitation of motor skills and, within these, exoskeletons appeared, a clear commitment to the future.
During several exploratory trips to Japan and the US, we had the opportunity to visit various universities (Tsukuba University and MIT), exoskeleton manufacturing companies, hospitals, and rehabilitation centers. But it was at the Spaulding Rehabilitation Center, in Charlestown (on the outskirts of Boston), where, while we were walking through one of the corridors, Professor Bonato, an Italian who directed the rehabilitation unit, told us: "look, that's Spanish" , pointing to an exoskeleton that was leaning on a chair.
To our astonishment, we had gone to Massachusetts to find an exoskeleton developed by the CSIC (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, a Spanish state agency attached to the Ministry of Science and Innovation) at the Cajal Institute.
As soon as we got back home, we called the CSIC to see if the technology they had developed could be licensed. The response was positive and in 3 months we closed an agreement that led us to establish Gogoa Mobility Robots (Gogoa Group) on August 28, 2015.
IT WAS THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION.