MongoDB, the company formerly known as 10gen, announced today that it has raised US$150 million in venture capital. That places the entire company’s value at around $1.2 billion. Is this insane? Is there another bubble?
Frankly, I don’t think so. Sure, there’s a bubble growing in the Valley, but it’s been growing for a while, and only recently have crazy high-dollar investments become fashionable. Earlier this year, it was GitHub raising $100 million. Before that, it was Color raising around $40 million without even having a product.
But the news that MongoDB is now worth more than GitHub is an interesting one, even if the numbers are only made up investment figures based on growth projections. Why is it that MongoDB is so popular and highly valued?
Frankly, I think the reason is twofold: First, MongoDB has incredible adoption. Second, Oracle, its exit target, is fairly well heeled. Whether MongoDB wants to become a public company or not, there’s one definite end game for it: Oracle.
In the database business, all roads lead to Oracle, and MongoDB, as a document store, is one of the types of databases that Oracle hasn’t purchased 10 varieties of. That means it’s an enticing target for the database behemoth.
Whether or not MongoDB as a company is worth $1.2 billion, however, is basically irrelevant to developers. What really matters is that MongoDB is super easy to use. And in that regard, perhaps this new bubble is more about a meritocracy for developers than about delivering pet food overnight to your door.
