Bentley Systems filed to go public in 2002, pulled back, and stayed private for 18 more years. The family company from Exton, Pennsylvania, made software that engineers used to design roads, bridges, water systems, and plants. Its tools were deep inside the world's infrastructure and almost unknown outside it. When it finally listed in September 2020, governments were talking about large new infrastructure spending and digital models of whole cities.

MicroStation and the Brothers

Keith and Barry Bentley founded the company in 1984. Keith wrote MicroStation, a design program for engineers, and his brothers Greg and Ray later joined the business. The bet was that civil engineers needed their own software, separate from the general drafting tools most designers used. Bentley sold to engineering firms, transit agencies, and utilities. Over the years it bought dozens of specialist tools for bridges, pipes, and geology.

Thirty-Six Years to Nasdaq

Bentley priced at $22 a share on September 22, 2020, and began trading on the Nasdaq as BSY the next day. Only existing shareholders sold stock, so the company raised no new money. The shares rose about 52 percent on the first day. The Bentley family kept voting control. Greg Bentley handed the CEO role to Nicholas Cumins in 2024, and Bentley still trades on the Nasdaq as BSY.

Cover: Restoration of the Aqueduct of Pisa, from The Life of Ferdinand de' Medici, Jacques Callot. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for engineers restoring an aqueduct (infrastructure).