Interview with Iván Martínez, co-founder of Robopedics. MONDRAGON Ventures, the corporate Promotion Centre, together with its cooperatives, has invested in around 40 companies over the past decade.
Robopedics is one of them — a startup co-owned with the Erreka cooperative — founded with the purpose of improving the quality of life and health of people affected by stroke, helping them walk again.
How did the Robopedics project come about?
It all started with a personal experience. My father suffered a very severe stroke that left him permanently in a wheelchair, unable to walk. While searching for solutions to improve his daily quality of life, I discovered a technology that could allow him to walk again: exoskeletons. However, due to their high cost (€100,000), heavy weight (20 kg), the need for medical supervision, and the fact that they were designed for hospital use, they were neither affordable nor practical for personal use.
At that point, leveraging my technical background as an engineer, I decided to develop a device tailored to my father’s condition, for personal use and without medical supervision.
After my father passed away, I met the other two co-founders of the company, Dionís Guzmán and Marc Serra. Together, we decided to create ROBOPEDICS to bring this solution to the millions of people who are disabled by stroke and rely on wheelchairs today. Over the years, and after a complex development process, we eventually created AWAKE, the world’s first Advanced Bionic Walking System — based on our own disruptive technology and with a unique market approach.
What areas is Robopedics currently focusing on?
The company’s main focus right now is to complete the regulatory process for AWAKE as a Class IIa medical device, which will allow us to begin commercialization in the EU. In parallel, we are working on securing funding (€700K) to finance the launch of sales.
When did your paths cross with MONDRAGON and the Erreka cooperative, and how has the company evolved since then?
MONDRAGON has followed the project with great interest almost since its inception, and in 2023 it joined as an investor and industrial partner through the Erreka cooperative.
The entry of MONDRAGON and Erreka into our project has been pivotal. On one hand, they provided the funding needed to complete product development, build the intellectual property foundation, and advance in the regulatory process. On the other hand, they brought valuable experience in scaling a technological project like ours. Finally, they offer us an industrial base to support the company’s future international growth.
How is the financing being used?
Until mid-2025, mainly for product development, intellectual property, and regulatory processes. From that point onward, primarily for the final regulatory phase and preparing the company for market launch.
What does the medium- to long-term future look like for Robopedics?
Exciting! In the short term, we will begin sales — which means that the purpose behind ROBOPEDICS, improving the quality of life and health of people severely disabled by stroke, will become a reality. In parallel, we will start technical improvements and work on new models and versions. In the medium term, we expect rapid growth — first in the EU, and soon after, in the US.
cloud technology axon
Addleshaw Goddard (AG), the London-headquartered international law fir...
