Magic Instinct Software
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Company

Magic Instinct Software (MIS) is a marine charting software company based in Nantes, France. It has distributed the Olex software in France since 2000 and publishes the GeoGarage nautical chart platform.

History

1998-1999: the early days in Canada

  • May 1998: Loïc Segalou and Pierre Elissalde found Magic Instinct Software Ltd in Canada. Both software engineers, they had been pioneers of marine computing (offshore racing, commercial fishing, recreational boating) from 1986 to the end of 1997 at Informatique et Mer, now MaxSea International, in the French Basque Country. The company sets up at the Incutech Center, the business incubator of the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, where it develops the first version of Nautilus 3D (in French).
  • July 1999: Nautilus 3D sea trials on board the trawler Snorri Sturluson in Iceland.
  • September 1999: Nautilus 3D is presented at the Icelandic Fisheries Exhibition in Reykjavik, where it is nominated among the most innovative products.

2000-2004: Olex and the Nantes company

  • February 2000: MIS becomes the exclusive distributor of the Olex software in France.
  • May 2000: Magic Instinct Software SARL is founded, hosted by the École Centrale de Nantes in the IRCCyN building. MIS is a member of the Atlanpole technology park.
  • July 2000: MIS wins the 2nd National Competition for the creation of innovative technology companies, run by the French Ministries of Research and Education.
  • December 2000: Olex AS signs a worldwide agreement with Simrad for Simrad products built around Olex; MIS keeps exclusive distribution in France of the Olex software sold on its own, as a licence.
  • August 2002: Ifremer selects Olex for its coastal vessels Gwen Drez, Thalia and Europe, with two workstations per vessel (bridge and scientists) and MIS modules for the onboard sensors.
  • January 2003: L’Usine Nouvelle selects MIS among 101 young innovative companies.
  • March 2004: Simrad France now distributes Olex for fishing and leisure; MIS remains the preferred distributor for scientific, military and other applications, and focuses on direct sales and user support.
  • November 2004: MIS is granted Young Innovative Company status (JEI).
  • December 2004: MIS wins the Brittany and Pays de la Loire interregional ICT/broadband call for projects (Mégalis) with its georeferenced panoramic video project. The same month, CGG Marine selects MIS, through Cadden, to fit its seismic research vessels with a vessel tracking system built on Olex.

2005-2010: bathymetry and web mapping

  • May 2005: Cegelec selects MIS, together with Thales Navigation, to fit the vessels of the Régie des Voies Maritimes (RVM) of the Democratic Republic of the Congo with bathymetry hardware and software.
  • July 2005: MIS moves from the École Centrale to La Chantrerie, opposite the École des Mines de Nantes.
  • May-June 2006: MIS presents its marine Google Earth work at the GéoTrophées of the Géo-Événement show in Paris and at the Google Geo Developer Day.
  • July 2006: river bathymetry training for RVM hydrographers on the Congo River, with the Tide RTK module developed by MIS for Olex.
  • January 2007: MIS enters web mapping with GeoGarage.
  • 2010: launch of Marine GeoGarage, a web portal for official nautical charts, and of the first mobile apps.

Since 2014: HUB CREATIC, Primar and polar vessels

  • March 2014: MIS moves its offices to the HUB CREATIC building in Nantes.
  • October 2015: at the 10th GEBCO meeting in Malaysia, SHOM presents a technical study on the use of bathymetry data from French Olex users, aggregated by MIS.
  • December 2021: MIS becomes an official Primar distributor of S-63 ENC charts.
  • October 2022: MIS fits the polar vessel Commandant Charcot (Ponant) with an Olex solution for a multibeam survey zodiac, as well as the German research vessel Polarstern.

The pages of our past projects (Nautilus 3D, GeoMovie, Google Earth charts, raster chart tools) are kept in the MIS archives.

Partners and customers

  • SHOM: crowdsourced bathymetry study based on Olex data (2015).
  • Ifremer: Olex on board its coastal vessels (2002).
  • CGG: vessel tracking system to secure the survey areas of its seismic vessels (2004).
  • Simrad: Olex partner since 2000, distributor for fishing and leisure since 2004.
  • Cegelec and Thales Navigation: RTK bathymetry on the Congo River (2005-2006).
  • Primar: distribution of S-63 ENC charts (since 2021).
  • Ponant: Commandant Charcot (2022).
  • Weather 4D, SailGrib, NavimetriX, Squid: apps compatible with the GeoGarage subscription.

Press coverage

Articles and documents kept from the former website.

  • 2005, Oceanology Today no. 4, spring 2005: Olex on board for the filming of the BBC documentary Amazon Abyss. PDF
  • 2006, Géotrophées 2006 review, Géo-Événement show, Paris, 17 May 2006 (in French). PDF
  • 2006, Cegelec, MIS and Thales Navigation: presentation of the RTK bathymetry system installed on the RVM vessels in the Congo (in French). PDF
  • 2007, Géomatique Expert no. 55, February-March 2007: “GeoGarage, serveur d’images spatiales” (in French). PDF
  • 2007, Hydro International: “2D/3D Webmapping”, about GeoGarage. PDF
  • 2007, Le Marin no. 3125, 1 June 2007: live stereo bathymetry with AIS and tidal current mapping module in Olex (in French). Image
  • 2007, Hydro International, December 2007: “RTK River Bathymetry in Africa”. PDF
  • 2015, GEBCO: SHOM poster “Evaluation and Use of Crowd Source Bathymetry in SHOM’s Digital Bathymetric Models”, 10th GEBCO Bathymetric Science Day, Kuala Lumpur. PDF

Updated : October 2026