ICGC

What ICGC does

ICGC (Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya) is the official cartographic and geological institute of the Generalitat de Catalunya, the regional government of Catalonia, Spain. Established in 2010 through the merger of the Cartographic Institute of Catalonia and the geological services of the Department of Environment, ICGC operates as a public autonomous institution (organisme autònom) headquartered in Barcelona. Under Decree 244/2007 and related statutory mandates, ICGC is the authoritative producer of official geographic, cartographic, and geological information for Catalonia, serving Catalan municipalities, regional government departments, engineering and architecture firms, academic researchers, and the general public.

The institute's technology portfolio is built on a unified geoinformation platform combining annual 25 cm orthophoto coverage (dating back to 1945), full-territory LiDAR point clouds (3rd coverage at 8+ points/m² from 2021-2023, 159 flight missions), topographic reference data at 1:5,000 scale, Sentinel-2 satellite imagery integration, geological and geophysical databases, and specialized soil profile records (3,419 records). Core products include VISSIR 4 (primary mapping viewer), Bessó Digital Urbà de Catalunya (urban digital twin), GeoAI-Cubes (AI training data in Zarr format), the worldwide Base Map Service, and a suite of WMS/WMTS geoservices compliant with OGC standards. Data is distributed through an API Territorial, a QGIS connector, integrations with ArcGIS, AutoCAD, MicroStation, BIM/IFC, Mapbox, Leaflet, OpenLayers, and MapLibreGL, plus an electronic store for printed maps and publications.

ICGC's revenue model is primarily public institutional funding from the Generalitat de Catalunya, with most geoinformation provided free under CC-BY 4.0 licensing. A secondary revenue stream consists of physical map and publication sales via the ebotiga.icgc.cat electronic store. The go-to-market is digital-first, combining open data self-service distribution with formal institutional provision to municipalities for mandated boundary determinations.

Name

ICGC

Legal name

Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya

Website

https://icgc.cat

Company type

Private

Founded year

2010

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

ICGC (Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya) is the official cartographic and geological institute of Catalonia's regional government, providing authoritative geoinformation including orthophotos, LiDAR, topographic maps, urban digital twins, and AI-ready Earth observation datasets to public administrations, municipalities, engineers, researchers, and citizens.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Barcelona

HQ country

Spain

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Public Institutional Funding: Core funding from Generalitat de Catalunya as a public institution providing cartographic and geological services to the Catalan government and citizens.
2. Map and Publication Sales: Sale of physical maps, digital products, and publications through the electronic store (ebotiga.icgc.cat).
3. Open Data Services: Free geoinformation services under CC-BY license for non-commercial use, with data provided to applications consuming WMS/WMTS services.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

ICGC operates as the official Cartographic and Geological Institute of Catalonia, producing authoritative geoinformation, topographic reference data, LiDAR and orthophoto products, geological and geophysical data, earth-observation services, and digital twins for the territory of Catalonia. It distributes most data free under CC-BY 4.0 open licensing through OGC-compliant WMS/WMTS web services, REST APIs, the datacloud.icgc.cat download portal, and interactive viewers such as VISSIR 4, complemented by sales of physical maps and publications via the ebotiga.icgc.cat electronic store.

Product overview

ICGC (Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya) operates as Catalonia's official cartographic and geological institute, offering a comprehensive platform of geoinformation products and services. The core offering centers on VISSIR 4 (the primary mapping viewer), the Servei de Mapa Base (global basemap service combining ICGC official cartography with OpenStreetMap data), and the Bessó Digital Urbà de Catalunya (urban digital twin using LiDAR and Mobile Mapping). The product portfolio encompasses: (1) Geospatial viewers including VISSIR 4, Visor 3D Carrers, Instamaps, StoryMaps, and L'Ull del Temps for temporal analysis; (2) Data products including LiDAR Territorial (third-coverage point clouds), Ortofoto Territorial (annual 25cm orthoimagery from 1945 to present), Referencial Topogràfic Territorial (1:5,000 topographic reference), land cover maps, soil profiles, coastal dynamics data, and Sentinel-2 satellite imagery; (3) AI-enabled products including GeoAI-Cubes for AI training data and NDVI vegetation services; (4) Developer tools including API Territorial, the Geocodificador ICGC geocoding service, QGIS connector, and multiple WMS/WMTS geoservices; (5) Mobile apps including Catalunya Offline; and (6) Thematic services for risks/emergencies, Earth observation, coastal zones, sustainable territory, and geological/geophysical mapping. All products are distributed under CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons licensing for official data.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Instamaps: Interactive mapping tool for creating and sharing custom maps
• ContextMaps
• VISSIR 4
• Visor 3D Carrers
• Geocodificador ICGC
• Catalunya Offline
• GeoAI-Cubes
• Bessó Digital Urbà de Catalunya
• Fototeca de Catalunya
• L'Ull del Temps

Products and services

• VISSIR 4 Interactive web-based mapping viewer serving as ICGC's primary tool for exploring Catalonia's topographic, cadastral and thematic geoinformation, launched in 2026 and highlighted in the 2025 Annual Report.
• Servei de Mapa Base (Base Map Service) Worldwide basemap service combining official ICGC cartography for Catalonia with OpenMapTiles/OpenStreetMap data for global coverage, offering WMS and WMTS protocols with topographic, standard, simplified, administrative, ortho and geologic style variants.
• Bessó Digital Urbà de Catalunya (Urban Digital Twin of Catalonia) Immersive 3D representation of Catalonia's urban zones built from high-resolution LiDAR point clouds and 360° panoramic images captured via Mobile Mapping technology and accessed through the 3DCarrers viewer.
• API Territorial de l'ICGC Programming interfaces enabling developers to integrate ICGC maps and aerial photographs into web and desktop applications using ArcGIS, Leaflet, Mapbox and OpenLayers.
• Geocodificador ICGC Geocoding service that converts Catalan addresses into geographic coordinates and vice versa, available as a web form and as a plugin for ArcGIS.
• LiDAR Territorial Third-coverage airborne LiDAR data of Catalonia with minimum 8 points/m² density and simultaneous 15 cm orthoimagery, distributed in 1x1 km classified sheets covering the entire territory from 2021-2023 flights.
• Ortofoto Territorial Annual orthophoto mosaic of Catalonia at 25 cm pixel resolution in RGB and infrared (IRC) formats, with continuous historical coverage back to 1945, distributed in GeoPackage and ECW.
• Referencial Topogràfic Territorial (RTT) Official 1:5,000 topographic reference database of all of Catalonia organized into relief, hydrography, transport, constructions, land cover and geographic names layers, available in GeoPackage, Geodatabase, DWG, DGN, GeoTIFF and IFC for BIM.
• GeoAI-Cubes Pre-processed spatiotemporal database in Zarr format combining Sentinel-2, orthophoto and nDSM with land cover classification labels across Catalonia, optimized for training AI models on earth observation.
• Mapa Municipal de Catalunya Official municipal boundary maps of Catalonia at 1:5,000 scale in 2D as established by Decree 244/2007, with 580 approved municipalities representing 61% coverage as of January 2026.
• Perfils de sòls (Soil Profiles) Database of 3,419 soil profile records for Catalonia containing morphological and physicochemical properties supporting erosion estimation (RUSLE), Pedotransfer Functions, crop modeling (DSSAT/APSIM), drainage modeling (DRAINMOD) and digital soil mapping.
• SIDL (Servei d'Informació de la Dinàmica Litoral) Coastal dynamics information service for the Catalan coastline providing data on coastline changes, beach morphology and coastal erosion, highlighted in the 2025 Annual Report.
• Mapa de cobertes del sòl de Catalunya Land cover classification map of Catalonia at 1 meter resolution with 41 thematic classes, with temporal coverage from 2009, 2018, 2019-2022, 2023 and 2024.
• Instamaps Web tool for creating and sharing custom interactive maps combining user data with ICGC cartographic layers.
• StoryMaps Narrative mapping tool for creating story-driven geographic presentations combining maps, photos and text.
• Catalunya Offline Mobile application providing offline access to ICGC geographic data and maps.
• Visor 3D Carrers (3DCarrers) 3D viewer for exploring urban environments of Catalonia with panoramic street-level imagery and point cloud visualization; provides public access to panoramic images and restricted-access LiDAR point clouds with measurement capabilities for authorized users.
• Visor Menut (Menut Satellite Viewer) Web viewer for Menut satellite imagery launched as part of the NewSpace-Catalunya satellite Earth-observation strategy.
• Connector QGIS Open ICGC Plugin enabling direct access to ICGC geoinformation within QGIS desktop GIS software.
• Botiga electrònica (E-shop) Electronic store for purchasing printed maps, guides, books and the Land Cover Map of Catalonia at 1:250,000 scale.
• OpenICGC GitHub Resources Open-source repository providing styles, tiles, code and examples based on ICGC data for developers integrating ICGC geoservices.
• Ortoimatges Sentinel-2 Monthly mosaic of Sentinel-2 satellite imagery processed for Catalonia, providing continuous Earth observation data from 2015 onwards.
• NDVI Satèl·lit Satellite-based Normalized Difference Vegetation Index providing monthly vegetation monitoring at 10 meter resolution with updates from January 2024 onwards.
• Fototeca de Catalunya Digital archive viewer providing access to the catalog of vertical aerial photographs of Catalonia from 1942 to present.
• L'Ull del Temps Time-lapse viewer showing changes in the territory through historical aerial photography and orthoimages spanning decades.
• ContextMaps Contextual mapping service providing high-quality basemap tiles for web applications, now transitioning to the Base Map Service.
• Visor de descàrregues Advanced download viewer for obtaining ICGC topographic maps, orthophotos and other products by area or sheet in vector, image and ASCII formats.
• Geoíndex Visualization platform for thematic geoscientific data including soils, hydrogeology, geophysics, geotechnical, geothermal, gravimetric, magnetometric, seismic and risk data across Catalonia.
• WMS Batimetria, Elevacions, Ortoimatges, Vegetació and Geoíndex Suite of OGC-compliant Web Map Services providing bathymetry, elevation/orientation/shadow/slope from LiDAR, orthoimages (local, territorial, Sentinel-2, coastal monitoring, flood assessment), NDVI vegetation, and the thematic Geoíndex (avalanches, soils, hydrogeology, geophysics, geotechnical, geothermal, gravimetry, magnetometry, geological heritage, geological risks, seismology, aquifer vulnerability).

Quantifiable outcome

• Complete Catalonia coverage with annual updates
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration11 records

AI capability8 records

Feature10 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• OpenStreetMap / OpenMapTilescoreTechnology or IntegrationIntegration of OpenStreetMap data for worldwide base map coverage outside Catalonia, combined with ICGC's official cartographic products to provide global basemap services.
• IGN (Instituto Geográfico Nacional) - PNOAcoreTechnology or IntegrationSpanish national geographic institute providing PNOA aerial imagery for Spain coverage (zoom levels 14-20) within orthophoto services.
• EOX IT Services GmbH - EOxCloudlesscoreTechnology or IntegrationEOxCloudless service used for cloudless satellite imagery mosaic for worldwide orthophoto coverage (zoom levels 0-20).
• Copernicus / European Space Agency (ESA) - SentinelcoreTechnology or IntegrationSentinel-2 satellite imagery from Copernicus program modified and integrated into ICGC services for land cover analysis and vegetation monitoring.
• Diputació de Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, TarragonacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-financing of Municipal Map project by provincial councils of Catalonia, with technical support from ICGC for municipal boundary determination.
• CREAF (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i Aplicacions Forestals)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration on land cover mapping, with 2009 land cover data based on CREAF's Mapa de cobertes del sòl v4.
• Generalitat de Catalunya - Departament de la PresidènciacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerParent government department overseeing ICGC as a public institution, providing institutional funding and mandate for official cartographic services.
• Estratègia Catalunya Espai 2030 / Polítiques DigitalscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerGovernment strategy for space economy and NewSpace initiative, supporting GeoAI-Cubes and Menut satellite projects.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Market position

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/icgcat
• YouTubeyoutube.com/ICGCat
• Facebookfacebook.com/ICGCat
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/institut-cartogr-fic-de-catalunya

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about ICGC