19. MongoDB

Better uses for big data

Founders: Eliot Horowitz, Dwight Merriman, Kevin P. Ryan
Launched: 2007
Funding: $311.5 million
Valuation: $1.8 billion
Disrupting: Big data
Rival: Oracle

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. MongoDB — whose name is a play on the word "humongous" — is helping them make sense of all of it. The New York City-based company processes huge sets of data in a fraction of the time it takes traditional databases.

Read MoreFULL LIST: 2016 DISRUPTOR 50

As companies realize they need a dizzying array of text, audio, video and social media to get users' attention, they also understand it's not easy to add all that new content to their databases. MongoDB lets its customers — including Gap, Saks Fifth Avenue, Expedia and eBay, to name a few — have an easier way to store and serve any type of content, build any feature and include any kind of data in one database.

"Databases have always been one of the hardest parts of building complex applications, and if we can make databases more accessible, we can let great innovators do great things for society." -Eliot Horowitz, co-founder and CTO

The company, which was started by co-founder Dwight Merriman — he previously helped launch DoubleClick, the online advertising firm that was sold to Google in 2007 for $3.1 billion — claims to have more than 2,000 customers across all industries worldwide. It has raised $311 million from investors, including Goldman Sachs, Sequoia Capital and New Enterprise Ventures.

(Left to right) MongoDB president and CEO Dev Ittycheria and CTO and co-founder Eliot Horowitz
Source: Mongo DB
(Left to right) MongoDB president and CEO Dev Ittycheria and CTO and co-founder Eliot Horowitz

Latest Special Reports

  • Nashville skyline at dusk.

    The pandemic and the success of startup culture have sparked the emergence of new hubs for businesses outside of traditional power centers of New York, Chicago, Houston and San Francisco. These Cities of Success each have used unique characteristics – pop culture influence, clusters of great universities, friendly geography or forward-thinking local governments – to attract major companies and nurture an entrepreneurial community around them.

  • The Workforce Wire provides news and information on what employers and executives are doing to adapt to the ever-changing workplace.

  • More than ever, the hope for a sustainable world has gained traction among the next generation of businesses, policymakers and investors. CNBC’s Sustainable Future focuses on how smart investments, new ideas and tech innovation can generate commerce — and a world — with staying power.

Tech