Public investors got their first chance to invest in MongoDB on Thursday as the startup launched its initial public offering on Nasdaq under the MDB ticker. For those who got in early, the investment is already paying off.
MongoDB's database services help developers optimize the data they need to build their applications at scale. Its goal is to bring database technology into the 21st century.
"Most applications today run on a database technology that was introduced in the 1970s," CEO Dev Ittycheria told CNBC. "In the '70s, I was using a rotary phone to have a phone conversation. So people are looking for a modern, scalable and flexible platform."
Judging by MongoDB’s reception — first by technologists and now by public investors — Ittycheria was onto something. MongoDB's clients include companies like Google, Facebook and Squarespace. On the first day of trading following the company’s $192 million IPO, its stock rose nearly 34 percent to more than $32 per share.
Before its IPO, MongoDB raised more than $453 million in private funding from investors including Goldman Sachs, Dell Technologies Capital and others.
Kevin Ryan, along with Dwight Merriman and Eliot Horowitz, co-founded the company after launching a series of startups in the tech space, including Gilt Groupe, Business Insider and Zola Registry.
The company closed the week at a $1.5 billion market capitalization.
