27. MongoDB

Open-source document database

Dev Ittycheria, CEO of MongoDB
Source: MongoDB
Dev Ittycheria, CEO of MongoDB

Founders: Kevin Ryan, Eliot Horowitz, Dwight Merriman
Date launched: 2007
Funding: $311 million
Industry disrupted: Big data

Companies are constantly getting streams of data from the Web, apps, mobile and other sources. MongoDB helps them make sense of it all. The company—with dual headquarters in New York City and Palo Alto, California—processes huge data sets in a fraction of the time it takes traditional databases created by Oracle and Teradata.

Read MoreFULL LIST: 2015 DISRUPTOR 50

With the rapid adoption of cloud computing, companies big and small are trying to find new ways to manage all the information they have on their customers and the markets where they do business. MondoDB—whose name is a play on the word "humongous"—sells its database technology as a subscription service with support and training included. This differs from multiyear, multimillion-dollar contracts that have been the norm in the $30 billion database market.

The company, which has grown to 400 employees, claims to have 2,000 customers. In January it raised $80 million from a group of investors, including Goldman Sachs, Sequoia Capital and New Enterprise Ventures, bringing its total funding to $311 million. Co-founder Dwight Merriman previously helped to start DoubleClick, the online advertising firm that was sold to Google in 2007 for $3.1 billion.


"Traditionally, teams spend too much time wrestling their data to perform and scale. MongoDB’s impact is measured in improved time to deliver value and faster response time, adapting to changing needs." -Eliot Horowitz, co-founder and CTO, MongoDB

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