Getmapping plc began in November 1998 as the Millennium Mapping Company (MMC). It aimed to produce the Millennium Map, the first complete cover of the UK in colour at 1:10,000 scale, with a ground resolution of 0.25m. Photography was flown by Cooper Aerial Surveys, with film processing and scanning carried out by Wildgoose.

In 1999, the first year of flying, some 70% of England was covered, in 58,000 photographs. In January 2000, MMC was re-branded as Getmapping. By the end of 2000, the remainder of England and Wales had been photographed. The company bought Wildgoose, in order to have all of the processing operations under its direct control (in 2003, Wildgoose was bought back by its management and is now part of Bluesky International Ltd).

After 2000, central Scotland was photographed at 1:10,000 scale, with the southern central highlands being covered at 1:20,000 scale (0.5m ground resolution) in later years. Getmapping then won a contract with Ordnance Survey to fly the Scottish highlands over a two-year period at 1:12000 scale (0.3m ground resolution). Two photographic aircraft were hired for this project, based in Wick and Glasgow.

In 2004, Getmapping partnered with FlightImages, Geosense and SCS to re-fly areas of southern England at large-scale using a Vexcel UltraCam large-format digital camera.