Bentley Systems Acquires 3D Geospatial Company

Bentley Systems, Inc., an infrastructure engineering software company, has acquired 3D geospatial company Cesium. Cesium is recognized as an open platform for creating 3D geospatial applications, and its 3D Tiles open standard has been adopted by enterprises, governments and application developers globally.

Cesium ion, the company’s software-as-a-service platform, brings 3D geospatial experiences to more than 1 million active devices every month, while Cesium's open-source offerings have more than 10 million downloads.

Bentley’s iTwin Platform powers digital twin solutions used by engineering and construction firms and owner-operators to design, build, and operate infrastructure. The combination of Cesium plus iTwin enables developers to align 3D geospatial data with engineering, subsurface, IoT, reality, and enterprise data to create digital twins with astonishing user experiences that scale from vast infrastructure networks to the millimeter-accurate details of individual assets—viewed from land, sky, and sea, from outer space to deep below the Earth’s surface.

“A 3D geospatial view is the most intuitive way for owner-operators and engineering services providers to search for, query, and visualize information about infrastructure networks and assets,” Bentley CEO Nicholas Cumins says. “With the combined capabilities of Cesium and iTwin, infrastructure professionals can make better informed decisions in full 3D geospatial context—all within a single, highly performant environment.”

“Joining Bentley marks an important milestone for Cesium as we continue our journey to create the best developer platform for the built and natural environment—founded on open standards and open-source technologies,” says Patrick Cozzi, CEO of Cesium. “The combined power of our two organizations and our shared commitment to openness will provide new opportunities for growth and create greater value for an already flourishing developer ecosystem that ranges from small start-ups to global enterprises.”

Cesium also promotes open standards, such as 3D Tiles for visualizing massive 3D geospatial data, which was adopted as a community standard by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) in 2019.

With the acquisition, Cozzi was named Bentley’s chief platform officer, leading the development of the combined Cesium and iTwin platform offerings, reporting to Bentley’s Chief Technology Officer Julien Moutte.

The financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. Dechert LLP acted as legal advisor to Bentley in the transaction.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

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