Couchbase Inc., the company behind the enterprise database of the same name, today confirmed recent reports about an upcoming listing by releasing the paperwork for its initial public offering. 

Couchbase is headed to the Nasdaq stock exchange with more than 500 customers, including the Nasdaq itself, Expedia Group Inc. and Intuit Inc., among other big names.

The company generated sales of $103.3 million in fiscal 2021. That figure represents a 25% year-over-year improvement, Couchbase disclosed in its IPO filing today, with most of the revenue attributed to its namesake database.

The database, called Couchbase Server, has a broad set of features that enable it to perform tasks normally requiring several different systems. The company says this broad feature set allows organizations to replace multiple separate systems with a single data management environment to simplify operations.

Couchbase Server is capable of functioning as a high-speed cache that holds an organization’s most frequently used records and loads them in a hurry when they’re requested by applications. It doubles a NoSQL store, meaning it can be used as a repository for text and other unstructured data. Moreover, Couchbase has features that allow it store structured records such as customer purchase logs alongside the unstructured data.

The company says that its all-in-one feature set lowers the amount of resources information technology teams must expend on database maintenance because it eliminates the need to operate a separate system for each use case. Additionally, Couchbase promises to ease the work of developers in the process by reducing the number of backend systems they must learn. The end result, the company promises, is a lower total cost of ownership compared with rival databases.

Couchbase moved to accelerate adoption of Couchbase Server last year by introducing a managed cloud-based edition called Couchbase Cloud. The service helped the company boost revenues 21% year-over-year in the three months ended April 30 to $28 million.

Couchbase’s strategy for driving revenue growth relies in significant part on the fact that, after deploying its database to power one project, enterprises often expand their deployments. “Our platform makes it easy for enterprises to get started with Couchbase and over time, we can take over database requirements for mission-critical applications,” the company explained in the IPO filing.

Couchbase secured many of its largest deals in this manner. The company’s IPO filing reveals that its 23 largest customers, which pay more than a $1 million a year for its technology, have increased their spending by an average of no less than 29 times since initially signing up.

Couchbase’s newly released IPO filing also reveals new details about its product plans. Not surprisingly, the company’s roadmap places a particular emphasis on the cloud. “In the second half of fiscal 2022, we plan to release virtual private cloud enhancements and other developer offerings, and in fiscal 2023, we expect Couchbase Cloud to be available on the major cloud infrastructure providers,” the company detailed.

Couchbase is not yet profitable. Its loss reached $14.6 million in the three months ended April 30, up from $11.4 million a year ago, and the company plans to continue investing in growth initiatives. 

“We expect to continue to invest in our offerings, personnel, geographic presence and infrastructure in order to drive future growth, as well as to pursue adjacent opportunities,” Couchbase stated. “We expend research and development resources to drive innovation in our proprietary software to constantly improve the functionality and performance of our platform and to increase the deployment models available to our customers.”

Couchbase estimates that its total addressable  market, which encompasses both the relational and the nonrelational database segments, is worth more than $40 billion. That figure is expected to pass $60 billion by 2024.

Photo: Couchbase