What OpenGeoHub Foundation does

OpenGeoHub Foundation is a not-for-profit research foundation headquartered in Wageningen, Netherlands (registered as Stichting OpenGeoHub, KvK 71844570), with origins dating to 2007 and formal incorporation in 2019. The organization builds open-source geospatial data platforms and machine learning tools that produce globally consistent environmental layers — soil properties, land cover, vegetation indices, climate, terrain, geology, and biodiversity data. Its user base spans academic researchers, government and intergovernmental bodies (notably UNCCD), environmental NGOs (WRI, ISMC), private-sector users in agriculture and carbon markets, and individual landholders; it reaches these audiences through open data, OGC-compliant web services, and an annual summer school program running since 2007 across European universities.

The technical core combines ensemble machine learning — primarily random forest and gradient boosting — with remote sensing imagery (MODIS, Landsat, Sentinel, SRTM) and ground observations to generate spatial predictions at global scale. Notable proprietary methodologies include the RFsp framework, which uses buffer distances from observation points as explanatory variables to capture spatial auto-correlation, and spatio-temporal regression-kriging for residual optimization. SoilGrids250m, the foundation's flagship product, delivers approximately 280 raster layers across seven standard depths using 150,000+ soil profiles and 158 remote sensing covariates, accumulating 3,900+ academic citations. Distribution occurs through OpenLandMap.org via OGC WMS/WCS services, REST APIs, STAC catalogs, and Zenodo-hosted cloud-optimized GeoTIFFs under Open Data Commons licenses.

The foundation's revenue model is grant-dependent: project funding from European Union programs (Horizon Europe grant 101059548 for OEMC, Horizon 2020, AI4SoilHealth), the Bezos Earth Fund (Global Pasture Watch, 2022–2025), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (AfSIS legacy data), USDA, and ancillary income from summer school fees (VAT-exempt under CRKBO registration) and donations. It leads the 21-organization Open-Earth-Monitor consortium and the Global Pasture Watch initiative with WRI, and operates from Wageningen with a newer Doorwerth location. Sub-brands include Open Soil Spectral Library, Nature Map Explorer, and Open Data Science Europe. Revenue is not publicly disclosed.

Name

OpenGeoHub Foundation

Legal name

OpenGeoHub Foundation

Website

https://opengeohub.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2007

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

OpenGeoHub Foundation is a Netherlands-based not-for-profit research foundation that develops open-source geospatial data platforms and machine learning tools for global environmental monitoring. It serves researchers, governments, and practitioners via OpenLandMap.org, OGC web services, EU-funded consortia, and an annual summer school program.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Geospatial Analytics Software

NAICS

Geophysical Surveying and Mapping Services (541360), Environmental Consulting Services (54162), Grantmaking and Giving Services (81321)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

OER Repositories, Discovery & Metadata Services (EDAGAJAL)

akta.pro secondary industries

Open Courseware & Course Modules (OCW) (EDAGAJAB), OER Licensing, Rights & Open Policy Support (Creative Commons) (EDAGAJAO), Environmental & Climate Grantmaking Foundations (BPAGAKAM)

Keywords

• Open source geospatial
• Earth observation data
• Geospatial analytics
• Open data platforms
• Environmental monitoring software

Headquarters

HQ city

Wageningen

HQ country

Netherlands

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. EU Research Grants and Project Funding: As a not-for-profit research foundation, OpenGeoHub's primary funding comes from European Union research programs including Horizon Europe (grant agreement No. 101059548 for Open-Earth-Monitor Cyberinfrastructure), Horizon 2020, and other EU funding agencies. Additional funding from organizations such as Bezos Earth Fund for Global Pasture Watch.
2. Educational Services and Training: Revenue generated from summer schools and specialized training courses for researchers and organizations. Educational services are exempt from VAT following CRKBO registration. Training covers hands-on software coding in R, Python, and OSGeo tools.
3. Data Hosting and Platform Services: OpenGeoHub provides data hosting services for global environmental layers through OpenLandMap platform. While base data is open access, hosting costs for large submissions (>50GB) may require contributor support.
4. Donations: The foundation accepts donations which are used exclusively for maintaining the OpenLandMap system and providing scholarships for students.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels8 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

OpenGeoHub Foundation is a not-for-profit research foundation that develops open-source software and open-data platforms for geospatial analysis. It operates platforms such as OpenLandMap.org, the Open Soil Spectral Library, and the Nature Map Explorer, and runs training and capacity-building programs (including summer schools and Open Data Science Europe) focused on open data science applied to environmental and earth observation monitoring.

Product overview

OpenGeoHub Foundation is an independent not-for-profit research foundation providing open-source geospatial data solutions, platforms, and training services. Their core offerings include OpenLandMap.org, a central platform for global environmental data (soil properties, land cover, vegetation indices, climate, terrain, biodiversity), complemented by specialized platforms: Open Soil Spectral Library for soil spectroscopy, Nature Map Explorer for biodiversity, and Open Data Science Europe for European environmental variables. The organization leads major projects including the Open-Earth-Monitor Cyberinfrastructure (OEMC, 21-organization consortium) and Global Pasture Watch. Core technology relies on ensemble machine learning algorithms combining random forest and gradient boosting for spatial predictions. Data is distributed via REST API, OGC WMS/WCS services, and STAC endpoints. The foundation operates training programs including annual Summer Schools (since 2007) and provides data production, hosting, and visualization services to researchers, governments, and practitioners.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Open Soil Spectral Library: Global spectral library platform for soil analysis
• OpenLandMap.org
• Nature Map Explorer
• Open Data Science Europe

Products and services

• OpenLandMap.org Open geospatial data platform for global land surface monitoring and environmental analysis, used by researchers, agencies, and educators.
• Open Soil Spectral Library Open library of soil spectral data and processing tooling for soil informatics and spectroscopy research.
• Nature Map Explorer Interactive web-based visualization tool for exploring nature and land-related geospatial datasets.
• Open Data Science Europe Educational and capacity-building program in open data science for environmental and geospatial applications, run as training events and resources.
• OpenGeoHub Summer Schools Recurring summer school program delivering hands-on training in open-source geospatial and data science methods.

Quantifiable outcome

• SoilGrids250m achieves 56-83% variation explained depending on soil property; 60-230% improvement over previous 1km resolution products
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration8 records

AI capability4 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core and minor.

• Open-Earth-Monitor ConsortiumflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 June 2022OpenGeoHub leads the Open-Earth-Monitor consortium, a group of 21 organizations (including Eurac Research, CREAF, and other European research institutions) focused on accelerating the uptake of key environmental data by diverse user communities in research, decision-making, and practice. Funded by Horizon Europe (grant agreement No. 101059548) from 2023-2027.
• Global Pasture Watch ConsortiumcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOpenGeoHub is privileged to lead Global Pasture Watch, part of the Land & Carbon Lab research consortium led by World Resources Institute (WRI). The initiative produces high-resolution (30m) maps for pasture areas and productivity from 2000 onwards. Initiators include WRI, LAPIG/UFG, IIASA, and GLAD/University of Maryland. Funded by Bezos Earth Fund (2022-2025).
• World Resources Institute (WRI)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerWRI leads the Land & Carbon Lab and Global Pasture Watch initiatives, with OpenGeoHub serving as the technical lead for mapping and monitoring activities. WRI organizes events like the Global Pasture Watch conference.
• Adam Mickiewicz University (Poznan, Poland)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborating university for OpenGeoHub Summer School 2023, providing venue and academic support for the annual open source geospatial training program.
• Eurac Research (Bolzano, Italy)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-organizer of Open-Earth-Monitor Global Workshop 2023, hosting the annual workshop that brings together European actors in open-source Earth Observation applications.
• CREAF (Barcelona, Spain)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-organizer of Open-Earth-Monitor Global Workshop 2026 in Barcelona, Spain, collaborating with OpenGeoHub on annual workshops for the Earth observation community.
• EnvirometriX LtdcoreTechnology or IntegrationWageningen-based company that developed front-end/back-end solutions supporting the OpenLandMap project. Contributed to platform development and maintenance.
• ISMC (International Soil Modeling Consortium)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerOpenLandMap serves as reference data provider for the International Soil Modeling Consortium, supporting global soil modeling efforts.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• QGIS: QGIS is a free, open-source desktop GIS application maintained by the OSGeo community. While OpenGeoHub produces data layers and QGIS is a tool for consuming them, they share a closely aligned open-source geospatial community and target user base.
• Pangeo: Pangeo is an open-community platform for big data geoscience using Jupyter, Xarray, and Dask. It overlaps with OpenGeoHub in open geospatial analysis and Earth observation, both targeting researchers with reproducible, scalable analysis workflows.

Broad incumbents

• ESRI (ArcGIS Online): ESRI is the dominant commercial GIS platform with an extensive online data and services catalog. It serves overlapping enterprise and government users and represents the primary commercial incumbent in the geospatial analysis market where OpenGeoHub operates.
• Planet Labs: Planet Labs operates a commercial satellite constellation producing daily global Earth observation imagery. While focused on raw imagery rather than derived environmental layers, it is a key upstream data provider and competitor for environmental monitoring use cases.
• Microsoft Planetary Computer: Microsoft Planetary Computer provides a cloud-hosted catalog of global environmental and Earth observation data with petabyte-scale compute. It competes in the same open environmental data space as OpenLandMap but is part of a broader commercial cloud platform portfolio.
• Google Earth Engine: Google Earth Engine is a massively scaled commercial platform for geospatial analysis over petabytes of Earth observation data. It serves an overlapping user base (researchers, NGOs, governments) but with vastly greater resources and a broader portfolio of datasets and tools.

Direct peers

• ISRIC — World Soil Information: ISRIC is the international soil reference centre producing global soil datasets (SoilGrids, WoSIS). It is the most direct peer to OpenGeoHub, operating a similar global soil information mission with comparable data infrastructure and international research partnerships.
• OSGeo Foundation: OSGeo Foundation is the umbrella non-profit for open-source geospatial software (QGIS, GeoServer, GRASS GIS). OpenGeoHub relies on and contributes to the OSGeo ecosystem, making it a close peer in open geospatial community building and software stewardship.
• GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility): GBIF operates a global open data infrastructure for biodiversity occurrence records. OpenGeoHub's Nature Map Explorer is comparable in scope and open-data mission, targeting similar research and conservation user communities with globally harmonized datasets.
• OpenStreetMap Foundation: OpenStreetMap Foundation is a not-for-profit stewarding open geospatial data, with a comparable community-led, open-data model and volunteer/partner contributions. Functionally parallel as an open geospatial data foundation serving research and applied use cases.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/OpenGeoHub
• GitHubgithub.com/openlandmap
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UC5bNq3L-GG3uD2t9DmV3p8g
• Facebookfacebook.com/OpenGeoHub
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/opengeohub

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about OpenGeoHub Foundation