Cloud relational database company MariaDB lands on New York Stock Exchange

MariaDB had accrued at least $227.2 million in funds ahead of the SPAC listing deal.
Cloud relational database company MariaDB lands on New York Stock Exchange

Ireland/California-based cloud database company MariaDB has finalised its public listing on the New York Stock Exchange through its merger with the SPAC vehicle Angel Pond Holdings, to be renamed MariaDB.

The merger was first announced in February, with shares due to begin trading today under the ticker name MRDB.

MariaDB's listing marks the latest milestone for a 12-year growth strategy that's pounced on industry demand for non-hyperscaler databases that run on the open source operating system Linux.

It suggests hyperscale clouds like AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google face incursions by smaller data operations upstarts who promise a break from their locked down ecosystems and, even more critically, their data egress fees that some say impede the scaling up of cloud-side databases.

MariaDB's SkySQL cloud software is used to build open source relational databases for running cloud data services for IoT systems, smartphone devices, 5G and other modern technologies.

The software, designed by the same developers behind MySQL, the leading programming script for relational data builds, is said to support "any workload" at "any scale." MariaDB claims its customers can save up to 90% of database expenditures by "migrating away from legacy" products.

Patrik Backman, general partner of OpenOcean, MariaDB's founding investor, said: "I am incredibly proud of the part OpenOcean has played in this journey. After founding and investing in the MariaDB company, we worked hard to bring a top-notch team on board to drive it to global success. 

"At OpenOcean, our founding ethos is to empower the boldest leaders of the data economy, and the team at MariaDB perfectly embodies this mission.

"It has been a delight to work with such a talented and forward-thinking team that shares our vision of new and emerging technologies to transform our world and people's lives.”

MariaDB had accrued at least $227.2 million in funds ahead of the listing, most recently banking $104 million in series D funding disclosed earlier this year from investors including Invicta Growth, a B2B-focused growth equity investor based in San Francisco.

Aside from OpenOcean, the startup's other investors have included the European Investment Bank, which pumped in $27 million in mid-2017, as well as the CVC unit of enterprise software company ServiceNow, Chinese tech giant Alibaba, Intel Capital, GP Bullhound and Finnish private equity player Tesi. SmartFin Capital led a $25 million series C raise for MariaDB in July 2020.

Michael Howard, MariaDB's CEO who will continue at the helm following the public listing, said: "Today is an exciting day that marks a new chapter for MariaDB and an important milestone in the cloud industry.

"Our customers increasingly come to us because they are struggling with the scalability and availability offered by the hyperscalers. With MariaDB SkySQL, we deliver better price and performance while freeing businesses from vendor lock-in with a multi-cloud offering.

"I am incredibly proud to work with our talented team and our investors as we continue to build success in the cloud for companies around the world.”

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