Orbik Cybersecurity, the first technological start-up to become a co-operative

Orbik Cybersecurity is a start-up from the Basque technology centre Ikerlan which, with the help of the Basque Government and the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, broke into the industrial cybersecurity market at the beginning of 2023 as a state benchmark company focused on electronic product cybersecurity and on offering an external accreditation seal in accordance with international standards. Now it is once again a pioneer, becoming the first technological start-up to transform itself into a cooperative, setting itself up as a model for a new form of technological entrepreneurship. It has done so within the framework of an agreement between MONDRAGON (through its Promotion Centre and its Knowledge Division) and Ikerlan, which aims to mobilise more than 10 million euros over the next four years to promote the transfer of the group's technological assets to the market, and with the support of the Basque Government through the Basque Tek Ventures programme of the SPRI group.

Following the roadmap defined since its creation and after closing a 1,8 million euro round of financing, Orbik has today completed its transformation into a co-operative and has also received a major boost to continue growing in the coming years.

The Basque Government's Minister for Industry, Energy Transition and Sustainability Mikel Jauregi, MONDRAGON's President Pello Rodríguez, the Managing Director of Ikerlan Ion Etxeberria and the Managing Director of Orbik Cybersecurity, Salvador Trujillo, today formalised the transformation of the limited company into a co-operative, during a ceremony held at the technology centre's headquarters in Arrasate-Mondragon.

Orbik team, with the authorities and representatives of the organizations participating in the event.

Orbik, the first of a new ecosystem

Orbik Cybersecurity is the first co-operative start-up born within MONDRAGON, but others will soon follow, because the new co-operative specialising in industrial cybersecurity is the spearhead of a pioneering model of co-operative technology companies that MONDRAGON and Ikerlan want to promote. To this end, the two organisations have signed a collaboration agreement which aims to mobilise more than 10 million euros over the next four years for the creation of new co-operative start-ups in the Basque Country. This is an innovative strategy which aims to prioritise the roots in the territory, maintaining ownership and management, preserving the knowledge generated by this type of company in our environment and promoting the creation of cooperative employment for the future in the country.

‘With Orbik Cybersecurity, and with the ecosystem that we want to build and establish in the Basque Country over the next few years, we are going to demonstrate that it is possible to combine innovation and cutting-edge technology with a sustainable economic model, based on co-operative values, with a long-term vision and which is not only capable of generating quality employment and wealth in our environment, but also of distributing it in a supportive way’, said Ion Etxeberria, Managing Director of Ikerlan. ‘The agreement with MONDRAGON establishes a working framework and guarantees financial and corporate coverage for the path we have opened with Orbik Cybersecurity, and which will soon be followed by other initiatives’. In fact, Etxeberria expressed his confidence that during the first quarter of 2025 a new Ikerlan start-up will be able to begin its journey along the same path as Orbik Cybersecurity, although he did not want to provide more details about it. ‘Furthermore, the support of the Basque Government is key for Ikerlan, as it confirms the importance of this initiative for the Basque Country’, concludes Etxeberria.

For his part, the President or MONDRAGON, Pello Rodríguez, acknowledged that the transformation of Orbik Cybersecurity into a co-operative has been experienced ‘with particular excitement in the Corporation’ and has highlighted the value of the agreement signed between MONDRAGON and Ikerlan ‘because we need projects for the future like this in MONDRAGON and in the Basque Country’. He also believes that this initiative ‘highlights MONDRAGON's unique and differential entrepreneurial ecosystem, which combines the technological and talent development capabilities of the Knowledge Division with corporate tools for financing and promoting entrepreneurship, and with the industrial and business experience of the rest of the Divisions’. Finally, he thanked Ikerlan for his determination, his courage and the consistency he has shown throughout the process of creating and transforming Orbik Cybersecurity.

In this regard, Councillor Mikel Jauregi stressed that ‘the future of the Basque Country is written through industry, and the case of Orbik Cybersecurity contributes to placing us at the forefront, in this case the cybersecurity industry. In this sector we are already a benchmark in Europe, quadrupling the EU average in cybersecurity per million inhabitants. The industry of the future is digital, committed to innovation and technology, characteristics that Orbik brings together. But it also takes the form of something very much our own in the Basque Country, the cooperative, where all the workers feel that the company is their own and row collectively towards a common goal. Today we are taking a qualitative leap forward with a project that is based on technology-based entrepreneurship in order to consolidate itself as a business, with a view to attracting companies in its value chain and generating economic development and employment in the surrounding area. In this sense, public-private collaboration between the Basque Government, MONDRAGON and Ikerlan is essential to be able to tackle the future challenges facing our country’.

Orbik Cybersecurity's prospects for 2025

Completing its roadmap by becoming a cooperative has not been the only achievement of Orbik Cybersecurity in its first year of operation, as Orbik Cybersecurity has exceeded its initial growth expectations. It now has a team of more than 20 professionals and closed 2024 with a turnover of 700 000 euros. By 2025, the company aims to double its team and revenue.

‘We are very satisfied with the evolution of the project in general and in particular  with the fact that in such a short time we have been able to attract such talented people to the project and gain the trust of such important companies. We are very grateful to our customers for entrusting us with the cybersecurity of their products and of course to Ikerlan, MONDRAGON and the Basque Government for their support. Furthermore, we are particularly pleased to contribute to the development of the Basque technology sector and to generate new business and employment opportunities in a field as important for society and the economy as cybersecurity. I am convinced that Orbik Cybersecurity is a company with a great future and that in the coming years we will continue to talk about more shared successes’, emphasised Salvador Trujillo, CEO of the Orbik Cybersecurity cooperative.

Orbik Cybersecurity is located in Ikerlan's Digilab laboratory facilities in Arrasate-Mondragón (Gipuzkoa), next to the first industrial cybersecurity laboratory in Spain to be accredited by ENAC, the Spanish National Accreditation Body, according to the UNE17025 cybersecurity standard. The new cooperative's main customers include companies in the electricity sector, as well as industrial capital goods, transport, machine tools and cybersecurity products that must comply with the iec62443-4-2 standard. It is also being driven by the approval of the new European Cyber Resilience Act legislation, which includes new cybersecurity requirements.