Privately held corporation founded in 1969 as Environmental Systems Research Institute., a research group focused on land-use planning. "The company's early mission was to organize and analyze geographic information to help land planners and land resource managers make well-informed environmental decisions."
The firm provides ArcGIS, a widely adopted (with a significant share of the GIS software market worldwide) cloud-based mapping system for cataloging, visualizing, and sharing geospatial information. Esri software and services around geospatial information are used by commercial clients, NGOs, and local, state and national government agencies worldwide.