What Open Geospatial Consortium does

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), founded in 1994, is an international non-profit industry consortium headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, that develops and maintains open geospatial interoperability standards for location data and GIS. Its members span national governments and mapping agencies (NRCan, USGS, NOAA, NGA, NASA, ESA, UKHO, Ordnance Survey), major technology vendors (Google, Esri, Oracle, Hexagon, Bentley, Trimble), academic institutions, and nonprofit organizations. OGC's core product is a portfolio of open specifications that enable spatial data, services, and systems to interoperate across technologies, organizations, and borders, including the OGC API family (e.g., OGC API – Features, JSON-FG), CityGML, IndoorGML, SensorThings API, 3D Tiles, GeoSciML, GroundWaterML, LandInfra/InfraGML, MUDDI, and openEO.

Revenue is generated primarily through annual membership fees across five tiers (Commercial, Government, Nonprofit/NGO, Academic, Individual), supplemented by compliance certification fees for products passing the OGC Compliance Program and by event sponsorships for code sprints, conferences, and working group meetings. Distribution is hybrid: direct sales for enterprise and government memberships, self-serve enrollment through ogc.org and the Agora member platform for individual and academic tiers, and certification-based engagement for technology vendors. The organization also produces OGC Academy educational content, an active Research & Innovation program with testbeds and pilots, and supporting infrastructure including OGC Schemas, Vocabularies, and Building Blocks.

Name

Open Geospatial Consortium

Legal name

Open Geospatial Consortium

Website

https://opengeospatial.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1994

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

501–1,000 employees

Short description

The Open Geospatial Consortium is a global non-profit consortium founded in 1994 that develops open interoperability standards for geospatial data and location services, serving governments, technology vendors, research institutions, and geospatial professionals worldwide.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Geospatial Standards & Interoperability Specifications

NAICS

Business Associations (813910)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600)

akta.pro primary industry

Remote Sensing & Earth Observation Analytics (Satellite/UAV/LiDAR, Image Processing) (EUAHAKAD)

Keywords

• Open geospatial standards
• Spatial data interoperability
• GIS API specifications
• Geospatial data models
• Standards development organization

Headquarters

HQ city

Wayland

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Membership Fees: OGC generates revenue through membership fees from Commercial, Government, Nonprofit/NGO, Academic, and Individual member categories. The organization operates a membership fee calculator for prospective members.
2. Standards Licensing and Certification: Revenue generated through compliance certification of products and services that implement OGC standards, including certified and uncertified product listings.
3. Event Sponsorships: Revenue from event sponsorship opportunities for members and partners during OGC conferences, code sprints, and other community events.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is an international nonprofit industry consortium that develops and maintains open geospatial standards and specifications for location data and GIS interoperability. Its portfolio includes API standards (OGC API Features, SensorThings API, JSON-FG), data models (CityGML, IndoorGML, GeoSciML, GroundWaterML, LandInfra/InfraGML, MUDDI), 3D streaming formats (3D Tiles), a Compliance/Certification Program, and a member-driven Research & Innovation program.

Product overview

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is a global standards organization that develops and maintains open geospatial standards for location data and GIS. Rather than a single unified product, OGC offers a portfolio of interconnected standards and programs: OGC Standards (the core product, including standards like CityGML, IndoorGML, SensorThings API, and 3D Tiles) serve as the foundational open specifications; OGC API – Features and JSON-FG provide API standards for geospatial data access; the Compliance Program certifies product interoperability; Research & Innovation conducts testbeds and pilots; and OGC Academy provides education. Supporting resources include OGC Schemas, Vocabularies, and Building Blocks. The portfolio was recently expanded with openEO as a Community Standard and JSON-FG for enhanced JSON-based feature representation.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• OGC Standards
• OGC API – Features
• CityGML Open data model and XML-based format for the representation, storage, and exchange of virtual 3D city and landscape models.
• IndoorGML Open data model and GML/XML encoding for representing indoor navigation systems and indoor spatial data.
• SensorThings API Open standard for connecting IoT devices, data, and applications over the web, enabling unified access to sensor data and systems.
• 3D Tiles Open standard for streaming massive heterogeneous 3D geospatial datasets including buildings, trees, point clouds, and vector data.
• LandInfra/InfraGML Standards providing a data model and XML encoding for representing land administration and civil infrastructure data across the infrastructure lifecycle.
• GeoSciML Markup language standard for encoding geological map features, borehole data, and other geoscience information.
• GroundWaterML Data model standard for groundwater observation and measurement data, enabling interoperable groundwater information exchange.
• MUDDI Unified framework standard for managing subsurface information, covering utilities and underground infrastructure.
• openEO Community standard for cloud-based processing of Earth observation satellite data, enabling standardized access to analysis-ready data and processing services.
• Features and Geometries JSON (JSON-FG) Standard for representing geospatial features and geometries in JSON format, combining feature data with geometry representations.
• OGC Compliance Program Certification program ensuring that products and services meet rigorous, industry-accepted OGC standards, enabling seamless interoperability within the global geospatial ecosystem.
• OGC Research & Innovation (Testbeds and Pilots) Collaborative testbeds, pilots, and applied experimentation programs exploring emerging geospatial technologies and addressing real-world challenges.

Quantifiable outcome

• WGS 84 datum ensemble enables different versions of reference systems to be treated as a single group for data integration
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers14 records

Segments12 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature12 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Overture Maps FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOverture Maps Foundation collaborates with OGC on open geospatial data standards and map data interoperability. Overture contributes to advancing open standards for location data and works with OGC on specifications for geospatial data exchange.
• TNFD (Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerTNFD works with OGC on standards for nature-related geospatial data and disclosure frameworks. The partnership supports integrating geospatial standards into nature-related financial risk assessments and reporting.
• ISO (International Organization for Standardization)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOGC standards align with ISO 19111:2019 and other international standards. OGC collaborates with ISO on geodetic standards including datum ensembles and coordinate reference systems.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Direct peers

• Khronos Group: Khronos is a member-funded consortium creating open standards for graphics, compute, and sensing (Vulkan, OpenGL, OpenCL, WebGL). Highly comparable model: industry consortium, member dues, open specifications, and a conformance/certification program for implementations.
• World Wide Web Consortium (W3C): W3C is the most direct analogue to OGC: a member-driven international consortium that develops open, royalty-free standards (HTML, CSS, XML, Web APIs). Same governance model (member-funded, consensus-driven), same compliance orientation, and same role as neutral convener across competing commercial interests.
• OASIS Open: OASIS is a nonprofit standards consortium that drives open-source and open-standards development in areas like cybersecurity, IoT, and cloud (e.g., SAML, MQTT, AMQP). Directly comparable member-funded model and focus on open, vendor-neutral specifications.
• Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF): IETF develops open internet standards (TCP/IP, HTTP, DNS) via a similar volunteer working-group model. Closely comparable in structure: open standards, consensus-driven committees, broad member base of vendors and academics, no formal certification program but strong de facto authority.

Broad incumbents

• IEEE Standards Association: IEEE-SA produces industry standards across electrical, electronic, and computing domains (Wi-Fi, Ethernet, etc.). Broader scope than OGC and much larger scale, but shares the member-funded, working-group-driven model for developing voluntary consensus standards.
• ISO (International Organization for Standardization): ISO is the dominant global standards body with which OGC has a formal alliance (ISO 19111:2019 alignment). Much larger and broader scope (all industries), but comparable role as international convener and certifier of consensus-driven technical standards.

Others

• Linux Foundation: Linux Foundation is a larger-scale open-source foundation supporting vendor-neutral projects (Linux, Kubernetes, etc.). Comparable organizational model (membership-funded nonprofit, vendor-neutral governance, project incubation), but applies the model to software projects rather than formal standards.
• Eclipse Foundation: Eclipse Foundation supports open-source working groups (Jakarta EE, Adoptium). Comparable member-funded, vendor-neutral consortium model, but oriented around open-source code projects rather than published standards with compliance programs.

Emerging players

• Overture Maps Foundation: Overture Maps Foundation is a newer open-data initiative (Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, TomTom) building interoperable open map data. Overlaps with OGC's mission in geospatial data interoperability, particularly for vector basemap data, making it both a peer and a strategic collaborator.

Regional players

• Consortium for Spatial Information (CGIAR-CSI): CGIAR Consortium for Spatial Information coordinates geospatial standards and data sharing for international agricultural research. Comparable in scope (geospatial interoperability) but focuses on agriculture and developing-country applications rather than OGC's broader cross-industry scope.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/opengeospatial
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@opengeospatial
• Xx.com/opengeospatial
• Facebookfacebook.com/opengeospatial
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/open-geospatial-consortium

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Open Geospatial Consortium