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"MongoDB, capitalizing on the popularity of its online database software, raised $150 million in a venture-funding round that would make it the most valuable Internet startup in New York.\nThe deal attracted new investors such as EMC and Salesforce.com, along with previous backers Red Hat, Intel, New Enterprise Associates and Sequoia Capital, according to MongoDB. The round values the company at $1.2 billion, said two people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the valuation isn\u2019t public.\nMongoDB has been quietly building a global database business \u2014 with its sales and headcount more than doubling each year, Chief Executive Officer Max Schireson said. The company is making inroads with its lower-cost software, aiming to threaten the dominance of Oracle Corp.\u2019s relational databases, he said.\n\u201CWe\u2019re picking up an increasing share of the market and over time that could become a really significant share,\u201D said Schireson, who declined to discuss MongoDB\u2019s valuation. \u201CThe volume and type of data and the consumer and developer expectations are so radically different than they were when the relational database was invented.\u201D\nA large financial-services company led the investment round, MongoDB said, without naming the firm. T. Rowe Price Group Inc. and Altimeter Capital also participated as first-time investors. MongoDB, which has its West Coast headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., has now raised more than $231 million.\nThe deal vaults MongoDB to the top of the heap among New York startups, despite having a lower profile than consumer Web companies such as Foursquare, Gilt Groupe and Etsy. At $1.2 billion, the valuation would exceed the roughly $1 billion Yahoo! paid for Tumblr this year.\nGoldman Sachs\nMongoDB \u2014 whose name is a play on humongous \u2014 now has about 600 customers, including Goldman Sachs Group and MetLife, Schireson said. The company markets its database software as easier to manipulate and scale up, making it better-suited to the Internet age.\nFounders Dwight Merriman and Eliot Horowitz came up with the idea for MongoDB\u2019s NoSQL database technology after getting frustrated with having to make specialized systems from scratch to handle their company\u2019s needs. At the time, the two were working at DoubleClick, an advertising-technology business that was acquired by Google in 2008 for $3.1 billion.\n\u201CWe spent too much time working to custom-build databases when we should have been working on the project we wanted to work on,\u201D Horowitz said. \u201CWe wanted to go ahead and solve the database problem so we wouldn\u2019t have to do it again and again.\u201D\nSubscription Model\nMongoDB, formerly called 10Gen, sells its database technology as a subscription, charging about $5,000 per server per year \u2014 with support and training included. That differs from the multiyear, multimillion-dollar contracts traditionally used by software providers. The total database market is worth $30 billion, according to Forrester Research Inc.\nThe company also gives free lessons on how to use its database software. The more programmers that understand the technology, the more likely it is that companies will build applications for the platform, Schireson said. The software has been downloaded more than 5 million times.\nThe free seminars also give the company a sense of where its software is catching on, said Joe Morrissey, head of MongoDB\u2019s operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, or EMEA. The company drew more than 200 people to an event in Tel Aviv and 100 people to one in Cape Town, building on its strength in countries such as Germany and the U.K., he said.\n\u201CWe\u2019re growing at least 300% a year here in EMEA,\u201D Morrissey said.\nBig Data\nThe rise of big data is helping fuel MongoDB\u2019s growth. Companies are seeking new ways to manage a flood of information on their customers and the markets they serve, aiming to use the data to make decisions in real time. The market for big-data technology and services will grow at 32% annually, research firm IDC predicts.\nWith the new funding, MongoDB is looking to accelerate its global expansion and find more partners that can customize its software for different industries. So far, it\u2019s teamed up with 250 other companies, the biggest of which is IBM.\nSchireson has recruited many of his executives from Oracle, where he used to work, and other corporate-software companies. His staff has increased to more than 300 this year, and he plans to double MongoDB\u2019s headcount next year.\n\u201CWe made a good living at Oracle managing teams that would do projects for customers for tens of millions of dollars to get big systems built,\u201D he said. \u201CNow what we\u2019re trying to do is make it easy, so people can do it themselves in weeks.\u201D\nImage: Ian Whalen"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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