MOMO was founded by gentleman racer Giampiero Moretti in the 1960s.
In 1969 MOMO opened production plant in Tregnago, Province of Verona. Due to increasing federal safety regulations and the wide adoption of airbags in passenger vehicles[citation needed] MOMO was sold to Breed Technologies in 1996, a steering wheel airbag manufacturer. Breed Technologies was acquired by private equity firm Carlyle Management Group and merged with other OEM automotive businesses they owned to form Key Safety Systems in 2003. Key Safety Systems sold the MOMO brand name to an Italian private equity group in 2006, but most of the manufacturing plants and technologies previously owned by MOMO were retained by Key Safety Systems.