New funding for Couchbase as NoSQL competition hots up

$60m funding round and appointment of new board member takes the fight to MongoDB

NoSQL database vendor Couchbase yesterday announced a $60m funding round, bringing its total funding to $115m (£68m).

The funding round was led by WestSummit and Accel Growth Fund, with other investors including Mayfield Fund, North Bridge Venture Partners, Ignition Partners, Adams Street Partners and DoCoMo Capital also contributing, all with the exception WestSummit having previously injected funds into Couchbase since the company originally launched in 2009. Raymond Yang, WestSummit's co-founder and managing partner will join the Couchbase board.

Over the last year Couchbase's sales have increased 400 per cent, according to the company's press office, with its employee base doubling over the same period to something over the 200 mark and eight new offices opening around the world.

In terms of funding, this latest announcement brings the company closer to rival MongoDB, which has raised $231m (£136m) since its inception in 2007, the latest being a $150m round last October with investors including Salesforce.com and Red Hat.

However, Couchbase claims performance advantages over MongoDB, particularly at scale, and in May it launched the first mobile NoSQL database Couchbase Mobile, giving it a foothold in the rapidly growing mobile market, providing a platform for always-available apps that can sync with cloud-based resources, something it previewed to Computing last year.

As such the latest funding announcement represents another ratcheting up in the battle to become the de facto NoSQL database of choice.

Other contenders for that title include Datastax Cassandra (total funding $83.7m, £49m), Apache HBase and the more established enterprise player MarkLogic (total funding $74m, £44m) whose CEO told Computing that his firm's revenues exceed that of all the other NoSQL players put together and that it's not the size of the funding but what you do with it that counts.

Commenting on WestSummit's commitment to Couchbase Yang said: "Our investment in Couchbase is testament to our belief that organisations around the world are moving to next generation architectures. China, and broader Asia, represent a huge market, and we believe Couchbase is well positioned to take leading share of this opportunity. As an investor and board member, I'm looking forward to supporting their APAC growth."