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Ossa was created in 1924 by Manuel Giro, who was an industrialist from Barcelona. The company started off with manufacturing movie projectors for the Spanish movie market. Originally, the company was called Orpheo Sincronic Sociedad Anónima (O.S.S.A.). The name was changed later to Maquinaria Cinematográfica. The company kicked off by building two-stroke motorcycles like many motorcycle companies around the end of WWII. Ossa also made use of the technology that was powered by DKW. This was a German company that had already begun building two-stroke engines.

The first line of motorcycles by Ossa was introduced in 1949. It did not o very well in the first years of manufacture grew steadily in sales in the 60s because most of its machines were exported to international markets such as the US. Actually, North American was fast to adopt the Ossa bikes and many of them are still available in the US to this day.

The company concentrated on building street bikes when it was established but eventually, it started manufacturing racing bikes. Ossa has built a number of motorcycles for motocross and trials competitions as well as enduro championships. It manufactured some well-known models which include the Copa 250; the Formula 3; the Explorer; the pioneer; the Turismo; the Mountaineer; and the Six-Day Replica.

Everything seemed to be going great for the company for a while. The motorcycles were well received and were doing well in the market. Nevertheless, a financial disaster struck in the seventies when Japanese companies started exporting their motorcycles all over the world. Their motorcycles were of very good quality and their prices were competitive. It was hard for even the consumers who swore by Ossa machines to ignore the Japanese machines. As a result, the Spanish Ossa was forced to look into other strategies.

A merger with Bultaco in 1979 seemed to be the best option to save Ossa. However, it did not work out quite the way it was planned. Ossa was forced to fold up in 1982. It was reestablished in 2010 when the trademark was acquired and began producing motorbikes again. In 2014, another merger was formed this time with Gas Gas, a Barcelona based motorcycle manufacturer.