MongoDB, Inc. is an American software company that develops and provides commercial support for the
source-available
Source-available software is software released through a source code distribution model that includes arrangements where the source can be viewed, and in some cases modified, but without necessarily meeting the criteria to be called ''open-source ...
database engine
MongoDB
MongoDB is a source-available, cross-platform, document-oriented database program. Classified as a NoSQL database product, MongoDB uses JSON-like documents with optional database schema, schemas. Released in February 2009 by 10gen (now MongoDB ...
, a database for
unstructured data
Unstructured data (or unstructured information) is information that either does not have a pre-defined data model or is not organized in a pre-defined manner. Unstructured information is typically plain text, text-heavy, but may contain data such ...
.
Over the years, the company has expanded the product from its
NoSQL
NoSQL (originally meaning "Not only SQL" or "non-relational") refers to a type of database design that stores and retrieves data differently from the traditional table-based structure of relational databases. Unlike relational databases, which ...
roots to have broader appeal to
enterprise
Enterprise (or the archaic spelling Enterprize) may refer to:
Business and economics
Brands and enterprises
* Enterprise GP Holdings, an energy holding company
* Enterprise plc, a UK civil engineering and maintenance company
* Enterpris ...
customers, such as adding
ACID
An acid is a molecule or ion capable of either donating a proton (i.e. Hydron, hydrogen cation, H+), known as a Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory, Brønsted–Lowry acid, or forming a covalent bond with an electron pair, known as a Lewis ...
and
transactions.
In 2016, the company introduced a
SaaS
Software as a service (SaaS ) is a cloud computing service model where the provider offers use of application software to a client and manages all needed physical and software resources. SaaS is usually accessed via a web application. Unlike oth ...
version of the product, called Atlas. there are 50,000 MongoDB customers.
In 2018, the company abandoned
AGPL licensing of its product and in its stead introduced the
Server Side Public License
The Server Side Public License (SSPL) is a Source-available software, source-available copyleft software license introduced by MongoDB Inc. in 2018.
It includes most of the text and provisions of the GNU Affero General Public License version ...
, which is not
OSI-approved.
MongoDB, Inc. is a member of the
MACH Alliance.
History
The company was first established in 2007 as 10gen. Based in New York City, 10gen was founded by former
DoubleClick
DoubleClick Inc. was an American advertisement company that developed and provided Internet ad serving services from 1995 until its acquisition by Google in March 2008. DoubleClick offered technology products and services that were sold primaril ...
founder and CTO
Dwight Merriman
Dwight Merriman (born August 5, 1968) is an American Internet executive, racing driver, and entrepreneur in New York City's Silicon Alley. Best known for co-founding DoubleClick with Kevin O'Connor and serving as its CTO for 10 years, Merrima ...
and former DoubleClick CEO and
Gilt Groupe
Gilt Groupe is an American online shopping site launched in 2007. In 2016 the company was sold to Hudson's Bay Company for approximately $250 million, which was less than the $268 million taken from investors. Prior to the Hudson's Bay acquisiti ...
founder
Kevin P. Ryan with former DoubleClick engineer and
ShopWiki founder and CTO
Eliot Horowitz and received $81 million in venture capital funding from Flybridge Capital Partners,
In-Q-Tel,
Intel Capital
Intel Capital Corporation started off as the investment arm of Intel Corporation in 1991 and in January 2025, it spun off as a standalone investment fund. Intel Capital makes equity investments in a range of technology startups and companies off ...
,
New Enterprise Associates
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) is an American-based venture capital firm. NEA focuses investment stages ranging from seed stage through growth stage across an array of industry sectors. With over $25 billion in committed capital, NEA is one of t ...
(NEA),
Red Hat
Red Hat, Inc. (formerly Red Hat Software, Inc.) is an American software company that provides open source software products to enterprises and is a subsidiary of IBM. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North ...
,
Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC is an American venture capital firm headquartered in Menlo Park, California, specializing in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. the firm had appro ...
, and
Union Square Ventures
Union Square Ventures (USV) is an American venture capital firm based in New York City. The firm has backed more than 130 startups, including Twitter, Etsy, Stripe, Coinbase, Zynga, Tumblr, Stack Overflow, Meetup, Kickstarter, MongoDB, ...
. 10gen originally aimed to build a
platform as a service
Platform as a service (PaaS) or application platform as a service (aPaaS) or platform-based service is a cloud computing service model where users provision, instantiate, run and manage a modular bundle of a computing platform and applications, w ...
architecture based entirely on
open source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...
components; however, the company was unable to find an existing database platform that met their "principles" for a
cloud
In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles, suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may ...
architecture. As a result, the company began to develop a
document-oriented database
A document-oriented database, or document store, is a computer program and data storage system designed for storing, retrieving and managing document-oriented information, also known as semi-structured data.
Document-oriented databases are one ...
system it called
MongoDB
MongoDB is a source-available, cross-platform, document-oriented database program. Classified as a NoSQL database product, MongoDB uses JSON-like documents with optional database schema, schemas. Released in February 2009 by 10gen (now MongoDB ...
. After realizing the potential of the software on its own, 10gen's team decided to scrap its cloud platform and focus on maintaining MongoDB instead. In February 2009, 10gen released MongoDB as an open source project.
[ 10gen opened its first west coast office in August 2010, having offices in Palo Alto, Reston, London, Dublin, Barcelona, and Sydney by 2012.
In September 2012, 10gen was in ]The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
's ''The Next Big Thing 2012''.
On August 27, 2013, 10gen announced that it would change its name to MongoDB Inc., associating itself more closely with what became its flagship products.
In 2013, the Identification Authority of India adopted MongoDB's software to analyze registration trends for new identity documents used to obtain government benefits in India. This raised concerns of potential espionage, since at-the-time MongoDB was partially funded by the United States CIA venture capital arm, In-Q-Tel. As of 2013, there is no known evidence the CIA actually has any influence over MongoDB.
On August 5, 2014, Dev Ittycheria was appointed president and chief executive officer.
By 2017, MongoDB had raised $311 million in funding from venture capitalists. MongoDB filed for an initial public offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...
on September 21, 2017 and went public on NASDAQ
The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...
that October 20. It raised $192 million, valuing the company at $1.6 billion overall. Its market capitalization varied greatly afterwards, reaching $39 billion in 2021 and coming back down to $10 billion by 2024.
MongoDB acquired database engine
A database engine (or storage engine) is the underlying software component that a database management system (DBMS) uses to create, read, update and delete (CRUD) data from a database. Most database management systems include their own application ...
company WiredTiger in 2014, followed by database-as-a-service company MLab for $68 million in 2018. The following year, in 2019, MongoDB acquired a mobile-focused database company called Realm for $39 million.
A secondary public offering was held on June 29, 2021. In 2022, MongoDB established its own venture capital fund.
Software
As of 2025, MongoDB was the fifth most popular database software. It focuses mostly on managing large databases of unstructured, "messy" data. It's typically used for mobile and web apps that commonly use unstructured databases. As of 2024, there were 50,000 MongoDB customers. MongoDB was originally best known as a NoSQL database product. The company released a database as-a-service product called Atlas in 2016 that became 70 percent of MongoDB's revenue by 2024. Over time, MongoDB added analytics, transactional databases, encryption, vector database
A vector database, vector store or vector search engine is a database that uses the vector space model to store vectors (fixed-length lists of numbers) along with other data items. Vector databases typically implement one or more Nearest neighbor ...
s, ACID
An acid is a molecule or ion capable of either donating a proton (i.e. Hydron, hydrogen cation, H+), known as a Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory, Brønsted–Lowry acid, or forming a covalent bond with an electron pair, known as a Lewis ...
, migration features, and other enterprise tools. Initially, the MongoDB software was free and open source under the AGPL license. MongoDB adopted an SSPL (server side public license) for future releases starting in 2018.
References
External links
*
{{Portal bar, Free and open-source software
2017 initial public offerings
Cloud computing providers
Cloud infrastructure
Companies based in New York City
Companies listed on the Nasdaq
Free software companies
NoSQL companies
Software companies based in New York (state)
Software companies of the United States