ESI Group was created in France in 1973.

ESI Group is a pioneer and world leading provider of digital simulation for prototyping and manufacturing processes that take into account the physics of materials. It has developed an entire suite of coherent, industry oriented applications to realistically simulate a product’s behavior during testing, to fine tune the manufacturing processes in synergy with the desired product performance, and to evaluate the environment’s impact on product usage.

The key to ESI Group's success is the use of realistic material physics, providing "as good as real" virtual solutions, in order to replace the lengthy trial and error processes on real prototypes.