Database software startup MongoDB is planning to raise $152 million at a market valuation of $1.1 billion in the latest tech IPO.
In an amended prospectus, the company, which was founded in 2007 and booked $124 million in sales for the year ended Jan. 31, 2017, said it would offer eight million shares to the public at a price range of $18 to $20. At the midpoint, MongoDB would command a fully diluted market value of $1.1 billion.
“MongoDB is the leading modern, general purpose database platform,” the prospectus said. “Our platform unleashes the power of software and data for developers and the applications they build.”
According to IDC, the worldwide database software market was $44.6 billion in 2016 and is expected to grow to $61.3 billion in 2020, representing an 8% compound annual growth rate. The company is seeking “to challenge companies like Oracle with an open-sourced, subscription-based approach to enterprise database software,” MarketWatch said.
“Legacy database vendors have historically dominated this market,” MongoDB said. “We believe this market is one of the few within the enterprise technology stack that has yet to be disrupted by a modern alternative, creating our opportunity.”
MongoDB would be the next big tech initial public offering after the successful debuts of Roku and Switch. As of July 31, it had more than 4,300 customers in more than 85 countries, compared to more than 1,700 and 3,200 customers as of Jan. 31, 2016 and 2017, respectively.
Losses have stabilized but the company has been burning through cash, spending $86.7 million in the year ending Jan. 31 and $45.8 million in the first six months ending July 31. Revenue, which mostly comes from subscriptions, has increased from $40.8 million for the year ended Jan. 31, 2015.
To encourage developer usage, MongoDB offers Community Server as an open-source, “freemium” offering. It said the software has been downloaded more than 10 million times in the last 12 months alone but warned that “Competitors could develop modifications of our software to compete with us in the marketplace.”