This year marks the 40th anniversary of IGN FI, which has grown into a global leader in the geographic engineering sector. Its mission? “To transform geographic information into a lever for action and decision-making for foreign local authorities,” explains IGN FI’s General Manager Aurélie Milledrogues.

At a time of rapid technological change and increasing demand for reliable geospatial data, the company’s expertise has never been more critical. Today, the subsidiary of the GEOFIT Group and the international technical operator for IGN (France’s National Institute of Geographic and Forest Information) achieves international reach with a relatively compact structure. Founded in Paris in 1986, IGN FI now generates annual revenue of €20 million, manages nearly 40 active projects at a time, and has completed more than 1,400 projects in 100+ countries — all with a team of fewer than 50 people.

Its expertise spans land-use planning, land management, risk management, environmental protection, agriculture and defense. Drawing on cutting-edge technologies, IGN FI offers tailor-made services to support its clients in their digital transformation and train them to use the new tools put in place.

Notable recent projects include the identification of flood risk areas in Senegal; the renewal of the boundary markers of the land demarcation line between Saudi Arabia and Jordan; and land certification and land office support operations in Madagascar’s rural areas, which led to the delivery of about 450,000 land certificates. “We implement these projects in close collaboration with a network of local partners, with a focus on sustainability and skill transfer,” says Aurélie Milledrogues.

 

Digital transformation in Côte d’Ivoire and Zanzibar

To carry out its projects, IGN FI mobilizes financing solutions adapted to each context, combining several complementary levers — among them Bpifrance’s Export Credit. In 2021, the company signed a contract with Côte d’Ivoire’s Ministry of Construction, Housing and Urban Planning (MCLU) to carry out a 27-million-euro project for the simplification and digital transformation of urban land management.

This included the design, development and deployment of the Integrated Urban Land Management System (SIGFU) across Greater Abidjan and the municipality of Assinie, with the aim to accelerate the process of issuing administrative documents, secure land information and improve the country’s overall business environment.

For the first phase of the project, the MCLU benefited from Bpifrance’s Export Credit — a financing solution IGN FI is also leveraging for a similar initiative in Zanzibar. “This allows us to co-construct the projects with our clients, in particular the states and associated ministries, by integrating financing solutions from the start,” explains Aurélie Milledrogues. “In Zanzibar, we also used Bpifrance’s Prospection Insurance to study our client’s needs in more detail beforehand.”

For the continued development of IGN FI, its General Manager said “all these tools from Bpifrance are very useful,” especially in a context where subsidies are declining for some of its clients. While the company has historically built strong expertise in Western Africa, it now aims to expand further into Eastern and Southern Africa, the Middle East, Asia and South America — regions where demand for its solutions is growing.

“Our ambition is to adopt a more proactive approach with decision-makers, to better understand their challenges and propose tailored solutions, while being supported by Bpifrance,” IGN FI’s General Manager concludes. “It’s a partnership that allows us to identify and pursue new international opportunities together.”

 

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(Sidebar) Celebrating 10 years of Bpifrance’s Export Credit

Launched in 2015, Bpifrance’s Export Credit program supports French SMEs and mid-sized companies exporting capital goods and services by enabling them to offer medium- to long-term financing solutions to their international clients, primarily in emerging markets.

“We can finance infrastructure projects such as hospitals, dams, and metro systems, as well as assets like aircraft, ships, and helicopters, or capital goods such as machine tools,” explains Aliénor Daugreilh, Vice President Structured Export Finance at Bpifrance.

The program’s 10-year anniversary was marked in November 2025 at Bpifrance headquarters, bringing together 90 leading French exporters alongside the institution’s partners and sales teams. “It was an opportunity to celebrate and thank our exporters for their continued trust, while also highlighting how far we have come since the program’s inception,” says Daugreilh.

The Export Credit portfolio includes 160 projects, 70% of which support SMEs and mid-sized companies. Cumulative commitments total €2.2 billion, corresponding to €12 billion in signed contracts. Geographically, activity is concentrated in Africa (72%), followed by Europe (14%), the Middle East (6%), and Asia and Latin America (4%). The portfolio spans a wide range of sectors, including civil engineering and construction (17%), transportation (16%), renewable energy (13%), agriculture and food (11%), defense (11%), machine tools (11%), telecommunications (9%) and naval industries (6%).

“Overall, exporter feedback is very positive,” Daugreilh concludes. “And it is common for the same companies to return to us for multiple projects.”