Today we announced our investment in 10Gen, the commercial powerhouse behind MongoDB, the fastest growing open source database on the planet. NEA led a $42 million investment in the company, providing a huge war chest for 10gen to continue its assault on the relational database market. Frustrated by legacy products like Oracle and MySQL, developers have flocked to Mongo en masse – Mongo is downloaded nearly 150,000 times a month and today reaches ~8 million developers globally. The mission behind MongoDB is simple – provide developers with an operational database that is scalable, robust, and easy to use. Used by start-ups, internet juggernauts, and Fortune 1000 companies alike, Mongo is more than an open source movement – it is now a widespread revolt against Oracle and the incumbent relational database.

NEA has long funded companies that have attacked the “one size fits all” database market at its point of greatest vulnerability –“Big Data” analytics. Through our investments in companies such as Vertica (acquired by HP), MapR, and WibiData, we have seen the emergence of alternative data stores purpose built for web-scale analytics. But Mongo has opened up a new front in the assault on Oracle, offering developers a true operational data store for rapid and agile development. In a world where application development cycles have gone from months (or years) to days (or even hours), developers need databases that give them speed and flexibility. Mongo gives developers a data model that frees them from the restrictions of relational mapping and complex schemas, yet is designed to scale horizontally as applications grow. It’s a powerful approach that is a disruptive force in the industry, and is clearly capturing the hearts and minds of millions of developers around the world.

Taking on Oracle in the RDBMS market is one of the greatest challenges and opportunities in the software industry. By making this investment, we are privileged to work with Dwight Merriman, Eliot Horowitz, and Max Schireson, three executives whom we know have the leadership, determination, and raw horsepower required for the road ahead. The world is ready for a new operational database, and we are formally joining the revolution…

Jon’s perspectives on VC and entrepreneurship can be found at www.oneblockoffsandhillroad.com or on Twitter @jonsakoda. Harry can be found on Twitter @harryweller.