The archive · Developer & Business Tools · Financial decision · 2007–2013
MongoDB raises $150M at a $1.2B valuation on its document-database bet
10gen's open-source MongoDB raised $150M at a $1.2B valuation on the bet that developers would trade SQL rigidity for a schema-less document store.
MongoDB
What the business is
MongoDB (10gen) sells MongoDB, an open-source, schema-less document database with automatic sharding and replication; by 2013 it had roughly 600 enterprise customers — including Goldman Sachs and MetLife — paying for support, training and commercial licenses around a free core.
Starting capital：$150M raised in a round announced 2013-10-04 at a reported $1.2B valuation.
How it started
The thread dates the company to about 2007 — commenter Patrick Collison noted MongoDB, formerly 10gen, was six years old when the round was announced. 10gen built MongoDB as an open-source document database at the crest of the NoSQL wave: developers could store JSON-like documents without a fixed schema and shard across servers, answering the flexibility and scale pain of MySQL-era web stacks. Adoption spread from the bottom up before enterprise sales existed.
What happened
On 2013-10-04 Bloomberg reported that MongoDB had raised $150M at a $1.2B valuation, a story that reached the Hacker News front page with 259 points and 223 comments. Commenters quoting the article put MongoDB at about 600 enterprise customers, including Goldman Sachs and MetLife, and described a Dublin office hiring heavily after what one called a "big growth spurt". The discussion turned into a referendum on the valuation: the top comment called $1.2B "absolutely fucking crazy" for a database, while Stripe co-founder Patrick Collison argued enterprise infrastructure giants like Salesforce and Oracle looked equally implausible at MongoDB's age.
No ending yet — it is still running.
Background
MongoDB began around 2007 as 10gen — a commenter notes the company was six years old in 2013 — and sells an open-source document database built for the NoSQL moment. Developers store JSON-like documents without a fixed schema, and the product promises horizontal scale through automatic sharding and replication, answering the flexibility and scale pain of MySQL-era web stacks. The AGPL license let anyone use the code freely while reserving a paid commercial-license path for companies that could not accept its terms.
On 2013-10-04 Bloomberg reported that MongoDB had raised $150 million at a $1.2 billion valuation, and the story hit the Hacker News front page at 259 points with 223 comments. Commenters quoting the article put MongoDB at about 600 enterprise customers, Goldman Sachs and MetLife among them, and described a Dublin office hiring heavily after what one called a "big growth spurt".
The discussion became a referendum on the bet. The top comment called the valuation "absolutely fucking crazy" for a database the author doubted would ever earn a tenth of that in revenue; Stripe co-founder Patrick Collison countered that Salesforce, Oracle and SAP all looked unimpressive at MongoDB's age. Skeptics cited crude write locking, mmap-based storage and an AGPL license some read as a "poison pill"; supporters argued MongoDB was the second major open-source database win since MySQL and often the first database a new developer learned.
The thread framed the round as a bet on converting open-source ubiquity into an enterprise business: support contracts, training and commercial licenses around a free core. The reporting stops at the announcement, so the case ends at the raise rather than at an exit.
What has to be true
- 10gen sold bottom-up: a free database developers could install in minutes spread through codebases and tutorials before enterprise sales teams ever arrived.
- The product bet was timing: schema-less JSON documents and automatic sharding answered the flexibility and scale pain of MySQL-era web stacks at the crest of NoSQL.
- The AGPL license made the business model explicit — free for the community, paid support and commercial licenses for companies that could not take the terms.
- The $1.2B round valued adoption itself: roughly 600 named enterprise customers and developer ubiquity, not disclosed revenue, carried the price.
What can be applied
Open-source ubiquity is a wedge, not a business: MongoDB turned developer love into enterprise support revenue, but the 2013 debate shows adoption alone never settles what a company is worth.
Aftermath
As of 2013-10-04 MongoDB had just announced its $150M round at a $1.2B valuation, with the Bloomberg report quoted in the HN thread putting the company at about 600 enterprise customers including Goldman Sachs and MetLife, and hiring underway in Dublin. The source record contains no later milestones, so the case stops at the funding announcement rather than projecting an ending.
Sources
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