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

MongoDB MongoDB is a source-available cross-platform document-oriented database program. Classified as a NoSQL database program, MongoDB uses JSON-like documents with optional schemas. MongoDB is developed by MongoDB Inc. and licensed under the S ...

, a

NoSQL A NoSQL (originally referring to "non- SQL" or "non-relational") database provides a mechanism for storage and retrieval of data that is modeled in means other than the tabular relations used in relational databases. Such databases have existed ...

database that stores data in

JSON JSON (JavaScript Object Notation, pronounced ; also ) is an open standard file format and data interchange format that uses human-readable text to store and transmit data objects consisting of attribute–value pairs and arrays (or other se ...

-like documents with flexible schemas.

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 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 primarily to ad ...

founder and CTO

Dwight Merriman Dwight Merriman 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, Merriman currently serves as th ...

and former DoubleClick CEO and

Gilt Groupe Gilt is an online shopping and lifestyle website based in the United States, launched in 2007. On January 7, 2016, The company was sold to Hudson's Bay Company for approximately $250 million. Prior to the Hudson’s Bay acquisition, sales were e ...

founder

Kevin P. Ryan Kevin P. Ryan is an American investor and entrepreneur who has founded several New York-based businesses, including Gilt Groupe, ''Business Insider'' and MongoDB. Ryan helped grow DoubleClick from 1996 to 2005, first as president and later as CE ...

with former Doubleclick engineer and ShopWiki founder and CTO

Eliot Horowitz Eliot Horowitz is a founder and the former chief technology officer of MongoDB Inc., a software company that develops and provides commercial support for the open source NoSQL database MongoDB. Horowitz is the founder and current CEO of Viam, a ro ...

and received $81 million in venture capital funding from Flybridge Capital Partners,

In-Q-Tel In-Q-Tel (IQT), formerly Peleus and In-Q-It, is an American not-for-profit venture capital firm based in Arlington, Virginia. It invests in high-tech companies to keep the Central Intelligence Agency, and other intelligence agencies, equipped with ...

Intel Capital Intel Capital is a division of Intel Corporation, set up to manage corporate venture capital, global investment, mergers and acquisitions. Intel Capital makes equity investments in a range of technology startups and companies offering hardware, s ...

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 ~$25 billion in committed capital, NEA is one of the w ...

(NEA),

Red Hat Red Hat, Inc. is an American software company that provides open source software products to enterprises. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina, with other offices worldwide. Red Hat has become a ...

Sequoia Capital Sequoia Capital is an American venture capital firm. The firm is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, and specializes in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. , Sequoia's total ...

, 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, Flur ...

. 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 category of cloud computing services that allows customers to provision, instantiate, run, and manage a modular bundle comprising a computing ...

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 the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized so ...

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

. 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'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'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 ultimately became its flagship products. On August 5, 2014,

Dev Ittycheria Dev Ittycheria is an American software executive and venture capitalist based in New York City's Silicon Alley, currently serving as CEO of MongoDB Inc. He holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Rutgers University Rutgers Uni ...

was appointed president and chief executive officer. The company's

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 investme ...

was on October 20, 2017, and a secondary offering was held on June 29, 2021.

CIA backing concern

MongoDB Inc., then known as 10gen, has received funding from the U.S. Government through the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

-sponsored venture capital arm

. This has been a source of concern in India.

References

{{Portal bar, Free and open-source software 2017 initial public offerings Cloud computing providers Cloud infrastructure Companies based in New York City Free software companies NoSQL companies Software companies based in New York (state) Software companies of the United States