History
Founded in 1981 to revolutionize the aerospace industry with CAD, Dassault Systèmes has consistently built on our strong foundations to shape a brighter future for humankind. We’ve evolved into a trusted global leader in sustainable innovation, proudly supporting over 390,000 companies ranging from entrepreneurs to multinational organizations across 12 industries through our 12 trusted brands.
45+ Years of Innovation and Success
Since 1981, we’ve revolutionized industries, healthcare and the physical world by redefining development and production methods. Our mission is to advance virtual worlds to empower innovators to create sustainable solutions that address the most pressing global challenges and unlock the full potential of human ingenuity.
Our Story Through the Years
From 3D design to 3D UNIV+RSES, Dassault Systèmes has transformed the way products are designed, simulated and produced across industries. Having started with virtual twins of things – planes, cars, factories, cities – we now extend this capability to living organisms, including human beings. We help our customers to create innovative products, services and experiences that contribute to the Generative Economy and a more sustainable world. We’re a little more than 45 years in, but we’re just getting started.
- 1981-1988
- 1989-1998
- 1999-2011
- 2012-2019
- 2020-2024
- 2025-present
Creation of Dassault Systèmes
Dassault Systèmes is established to design products in three dimensions, through the spin‑off by a team of engineers from Dassault Aviation; the initial goal is to address the aerospace industry’s need for more sophisticated drafting tools to streamline the development process and aid in the increasing complexity of aviation design.
CATIA
Dassault Systèmes’ flagship brand, CATIA, is released to provide multi-platform software for computer-aided design (CAD), manufacturing, computer-aided engineering (CAE), 3D modeling and product lifecycle management (PLM), initially for the aerospace and automotive industries.
Agreement with IBM
Signed worldwide marketing, sales and support agreement with IBM; the beginning of a long‑standing partnership.
CATIA V3
Launch of CATIA Version 3, with CAE functionality on UNIX and mainframe platforms.
CATIA V4
V4 architecture introduced to offer a new technology for creating the full 3D Digital Mock-Up (DMU) of a product, allowing customers to significantly reduce the number of physical prototypes and to have a complete understanding of the product, virtually.
Expanded Industry Focus
Increased industry focus to include Fabrication and Assembly, Consumer Goods, High‑Tech, Shipbuilding and Energy.
Bernard Charlès Becomes President & CEO of Dassault Systèmes
Bernard Charlès is elevated to head Dassault Systèmes, where he will remain for nearly 30 years, leading the company to introduce to the world to the power of science-based virtual universes to drive value and progress for all stakeholders, including companies, patients, consumers and citizens.
Initial Public Offering
IPO of Dassault Systèmes at 8,984,313 shares, representing 17.5% of the company’s outstanding shares at the time. Shares are approved for quotation on the Nasdaq Stock Market’s National Market and approved for listing on the Paris Bourse.
SOLIDWORKS
SOLIDWORKS acquired to bring cost-effective, easy-to-use production solid modeling solutions to the mainstream design-centric market, enabling Dassault Systèmes to offer dedicated solutions to a greater market segment and meet the needs of customers at all levels of product and process complexity.
Professional Channel
Formation of Dassault Systèmes Professional Channel to focus on marketing, sales and support of SOLIDWORKS.
ENOVIA
Acquisition of IBM’s Product Manager software becomes ENOVIA, to manage CATIA product data for larger clients and expand 3D product lifecycle management (PLM) capabilities to transform market opportunities into marketplace advantages.
Product Lifecycle Management
Unveiling of an expanded addressable market vision: 3D Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) for 3D design, simulation analysis, digital manufacturing and product data management to address a wider range of customers across industries who need to deliver exceptional product experiences.
V5 Architecture
Enhances capabilities for PLM for both Windows NT and UNIX environments.
DELMIA
Creation of the DELMIA brand to address the digital manufacturing domain, including digital process planning, robotic simulation and human modeling technology. Serves industries where the continuous transformation of manufacturing processes is critical, such as automotive, aerospace and consumer goods.
SIMULIA
Leveraging the acquisition of Abaqus, SIMULIA brand created to add realistic simulation, representing a significant expansion of Dassault Systèmes simulation capabilities.
Value Solutions Channel
Creation of indirect sales channel specifically focused on supporting SMB companies, from suppliers to OEMs.
3DVIA
Creation of the 3DVIA brand, building upon several years of research and investment to bring 3D technology to new users to imagine, communicate and experience in 3D. Provides enterprises and consumers with smart 3D space planning solutions that enable customers to engage, consider and make the best choices for their concept.
V6 Architecture
Unveiling of PLM online for all, Dassault Systèmes’ next-generation platform for PLM 2.0: a 3D online environment for everybody to experience products virtually to allow all user interactions to generate Intellectual Property (IP).
Acquisition of IBM PLM
Dassault Systèmes acquires full control of its distribution channels with the acquisition of IBM PLM, the IBM business unit dedicated exclusively to the marketing, sales and support of PLM software. Strengthens client support with a strong, unified go-to-market model encompassing the entire Dassault Systèmes portfolio, putting a complete PLM value proposition under one umbrella.
EXALEAD
Adds a new brand to bring advanced search capabilities and advanced semantic processing to industries like banking, retail, publishing, business services, life sciences and consumer services where easy access to information is essential. EXALEAD is later incorporated into the NETVIBES brand.
IBM Transition Completed
100% of Dassault Systèmes total revenues are derived from its wholly‑directed three sales channels, completing the transition from IBM begun in 2005.
3DEXPERIENCE
Expansion of Dassault Systèmes strategy to 3DEXPERIENCE and a new corporate purpose: to harmonize product, nature and life. Introduces the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to help entire organizations rethink business operations using a platform that connects people, ideas, data and solutions in a singular collaborative environment. Adds the first Industry Solution Experiences (ISE) – predefined collections of Dassault Systèmes apps that address specific industry needs and provide targeted value to customers and/or their end-users.
GEOVIA
Creation of GEOVIA brand – largely based on the acquisition of Gemcom – to enable users to model and simulate our planet from the vast expanse of the geosphere to the smallest details of urban settlements. Supports the sustainable capture, use and re-use of natural resources.
NETVIBES
Foundation of NETVIBES brand to bring intelligent dashboard capabilities and an easy and fast way to create personalized dashboards for real-time monitoring, social analytics, knowledge sharing and decision support to help customers reveal real-time information critical to their innovation process.
V6 Release 2014
Select customer are provided V6 R2014 on premise and as Software as a Service (SaaS), gaining the controlled availability of industry‑focused and user‑focused offerings. Introduces a new navigational user interface to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform – the Compass.
3DEXPERIENCE R2014x
Offers end‑to‑end and integrated scientific, engineering, manufacturing and business capabilities and services, with the V6 architecture as its foundation.
3DEXCITE
With the acquisition of Realtime Technology AG (RTT), 3DEXCITE brand created to provide professional high‑end 3D visualization software, marketing solutions and computer‑generated imaging services to extend Dassault Systèmes offerings to marketing professionals.
BIOVIA
With the acquisition of Accelrys, BIOVIA brand created to provide collaborative product lifecycle experiences to transform scientific innovation. Helps science-based organizations create new materials and medicines to improve the health and the life of people and the sustainability of our planet.
3DEXPERIENCE R2015x
Release of 3DEXPERIENCE R2015x, offering a simplified and improved user experience, with powerful enhancements that significantly increase productivity on premise as well as on public or private cloud. Introduces groupings of applications called roles, to cover industry‑specific user needs.
Dassault Systèmes becomes a European company
Legal transformation of Dassault Systèmes from a French public limited company (société anonyme) to a European company (Societas Europaea, SE) to reflect the company’s international dimension and growing presence throughout the world.
3DPLM
Acquisition of full ownership of 3D PLM Software Solutions Ltd (3DPLM), Dassault Systèmes’ joint venture in India with Geometric Ltd., fulling integrating India's strategic Research & Development laboratory teams into the company.
Extended partnership with Boeing
Expands Boeing’s deployment of Dassault Systèmes’ products across its commercial aircraft, space and defense programs with the adoption of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform for manufacturing operations management and PLM.
Outscale
Dassault Systèmes aquires a majority stake in Outscale to strengthen the management of cloud resources and services and adjust and control its cloud resources and services to manage peaks in activity, further diversify industry segments, deploy new features, and provide advanced on premise, private and hybrid cloud solutions to customers.
3DEXPERIENCE Marketplace
Introduces the 3DEXPERIENCE Marketplace for on-demand access to an online ecosystem of industrial service providers worldwide to help designers easily manufacture, find standard parts or hire temporary engineering.
Power’By
Launch of Power’By to enable all customers to benefit from the 3DEXPERIENCE platform’s value immediately, without any need for migration of legacy data. There are three levels: to enable social collaboration; to leverage hybrid data for product configuration and bill of materials; and to use the full capabilities of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.
Centric Software
Acquisition of majority ownership of Centric Software to bring software innovation to the fashion, apparel, luxury and retail sectors. Expands Dassault Systèmes’ capability to accelerate the digital transformation of companies seeking to meet the increasingly complex development of collections that respond to today’s on-trend and on-demand consumers.
MEDIDATA
Acquired MEDIDATA to launch a new brand to expand Dassault Systèmes’ reach into the Life Sciences and Healthcare sector to help drive the digital transformation needed to achieve personalized medicine and patient-centric experience. Brings clinical expertise and cloud solutions that power the smarter development and commercialization of medical treatments, improve clinical trials and create tailored treatments that deliver tangible benefits to patients.
3DEXPERIENCE Works
Launch of 3DEXPERIENCE Works, a family of applications aimed at small and mid-sized companies, bundling SOLIDWORKS, DELMIAWORKS, ENOVIAWORKS and SIMULIAWORKS to enable organizations to bring all key stakeholders together on a singular collaborative platform and move seamlessly from ideation through delivery.
European Green Digital Coalition
Dassault Systèmes joins the European Green Digital Coalition as a founding member to further emphasize the key role of technology in the green and digital transformation of the economy inside and outside Europe.
Science-Based Targets initiative
Dassault Systèmes earns approval by the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) for its GHG reduction targets and publication of its strategic roadmap to become carbon neutral, reaffirming the company's commitment to accelerate climate action within its own operations.
Renault Group
Renault globally deploys the 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud as part of their “Renaulution” strategic plan, to improve data sharing and agility while reducing costs and vehicle development time.
OUTSCALE
Creation of OUTSCALE brand as the leading sovereign and sustainable operator of a new cloud ecosystem to develop business experiences and address cyber governance.
Hyundai Motor
Dassault Systèmes extends its 30-year relationship with Hyundai Motor by another five years to help Hyundai's diverse partners locally and globally foster seamless collaborative technology relationships.
Sanofi
Dassault Systèmes partners with Sanofi to generate virtual twins to design, implement, qualify and operate modular production lines at its new-generation “EVolutive Facilities” (EVF) in France and Singapore for greater agility, reliability and performance.
NUMSPOT
Docaposte, Dassault Systèmes, Bouygues Telecom and Banque des Territoires sign an alliance to create NUMSPOT, a company dedicated to the development of a full offering of sovereign and trusted cloud services in Europe primarily targeting economic and institutional organizations such as banks, hospital and the public sector.
BMW Group
Strategic partnership to develop BMW Group’s future engineering platform with Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform to develop a virtual twin configurable for the variants of each vehicle model.
UK Atomic Energy Authority
UK Atomic Energy Authority to develop fusion energy plant with the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, demonstrating the production of safe, virtually limitless and low-carbon energy.
National Cancer Institute
MEDIDATA and the US National Cancer Institute extend their 15-year partnership to advance cancer research.
Pascal Daloz Becomes CEO of Dassault Systèmes
Pascal Daloz replaces Bernard Charles as CEO of Dassault Systèmes. In 2026, Pascal Daloz also becomes Chairman.
ASICS
The “ASICS Personalization Studio” at Dassault Systèmes' headquarters demonstrates a science-based approach to aid physical recovery while improving performance, showing the promise of personalization of high-end footwear products at scale.
Mistral AI
A partnership that combines Dassault Systèmes' virtual twin experiences and sovereign cloud infrastructure and Mistral AI's Large Language Models (LLM) for industry-grade solutions that protect intellectual property and accelerate the generative economy.
Bel Group
Bel Group and Dassault Systèmes partner to shape the future of food by accelerating the industry’s digital transformation and scaling up breakthrough innovations through AI.
JLR
JLR and Dassault Systèmes extend partnership to deploy the 3DEXPERIENCE platform for all vehicle programs worldwide.
AI Pact
Dassault Systèmes signs European Commission's AI Pact, committing to play a proactive role in how AI is used for driving innovation in industry to benefit citizens, patients and consumers.
3D UNIV+RSES
Dassault Systèmes launched 3D UNIV+RSES, a new operational model to master complexity by virtualizing the knowledge and know-how embedded in products, experiences and systems. It’s no longer just about managing products: it’s about orchestrating entire industrial ecosystems.
Apple Vision Pro
Dassault Systèmes partners with Apple to integrate Apple Vision Pro into the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, bringing spatial computing to 3D UNIV+RSES and enabling immersive virtual twin experiences for design, manufacturing, training and collaboration.
Airbus
Dassault Systèmes and Airbus extend strategic partnership, bringing the 3DEXPERIENCE platform and virtual twins to all new Airbus civil and military aircraft and helicopter programs to support collaboration, efficiency and next-generation aerospace innovation.
Airbus
Dassault Systèmes and Airbus extend strategic partnership, bringing the 3DEXPERIENCE platform and virtual twins to all new Airbus civil and military aircraft and helicopter programs to support collaboration, efficiency and next-generation aerospace innovation.
Addressing today’s societal and environmental challenges
Dassault Systèmes continually advances sustainability by reducing its own carbon footprint and helping customers achieve measurable environmental impact across their operations.
2025 IMPACT REPORT
Discover Dassault Systèmes sustainability strategy, ESG performance and use of virtual twins, artificial intelligence and the Generative Economy to help industries create more sustainable products, operations and business models.
Our Latest Acquisitions
Dassault Systèmes acquires companies that expand its expertise in industrial AI, virtual twins, cloud and more. These acquisitions bring specialized technologies, knowledge and talent that strengthen its portfolio and help industries accelerate sustainable innovation.
MEDIDATA Solutions
Adds clinical expertise & cloud solutions forsmarter development and commercialization of drugs & treatments. Improves how clinical research is designed, conducted & analyzed. Positions Dassault Systèmes’ lead the digital transformation in healthcare.
NO MAGIC
Strengthens the CATIA portfolio for model‑based systems engineering, architecture modeling for software, system of systems & enterprise business processes modeling. Allows users to implement continuous 3D digital processes & address all lifecycle aspects.
Acquisition of Majority Stake in OUTSCALE
Dassault Systèmes strengthens its position as one of the fastest growing cloud companies.
Our Leadership Team
Dassault Systèmes is led by an inspiring group of executives who are committed to execute our long-term vision of driving sustainable innovation to address the world's greatest challenges.
Be a Part of Our Team
Do you have big dreams? Do you enjoy a challenge? Do you want to unleash your imagination and creativity? Join us to open new possibilities together through the power of virtual universes!