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Couchbase, Inc.

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Couchbase, Inc.
Company typePublic
Nasdaq: BASE
IndustrySoftware
Founded2011; 14 years ago (2011)
Headquarters
San Jose, California
,
USA
Key people
Matt Cain (CEO)
OwnerHaveli Investments
Websitewww.couchbase.com

Couchbase, Inc. is an American public software company that provides a unified, AI-ready developer data platform for mission-critical applications across cloud, on-premises, mobile and edge environments. The firm develops and supports Couchbase Server, Couchbase Capella (its fully-managed database-as-a-service), and Couchbase Mobile & Edge, including Couchbase Lite an embedded database for offline-first apps.

Headquartered in San Jose, California, it has additional offices in Austin, Bengaluru, Tel Aviv, Singapore, and London.[citation needed] On September 24, 2025, the company was acquired by Haveli Investments, in a deal valued at approximately $1.5 billion.[1]

History

[edit]

NorthScale was founded in 2009, and in March 2010 announced $5 million in funding from Accel Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners.[2] Original officers listed were James Phillips, Steve Yen and Dustin Sallings, who were involved in the development of memcached.[3] In May 2010, a $10 million investment led by the Mayfield Fund was announced for NorthScale, and Bob Wiederhold replaced Phillips as chief executive.[4] Some time later in 2010, NorthScale was renamed Membase, Incorporated.[5]

CouchOne Inc. was also founded in 2009 as Relaxed, in Berkeley, California.[6] It developed and provided commercial support for the Apache CouchDB open source project, a document database. Initial funding was $2 million, including investor Redpoint Ventures.[7] Couchbase, Inc. was created through the merger of Membase and CouchOne in February 2011. The merged company aimed to build an easily scalable, high-performance document-oriented database system, marketed with the term NoSQL.[8]

In August 2011, a $14 million funding was led by Ignition Partners.[9][10] In October 2011, DoCoMo Capital announced an investment of $1 million was part of that round.[11] In August, 2013, another round of $25 million was led by Adams Street Partners.[12] A round of $60 million in June, 2014, included new investor WestSummit.[13] A round of $30 million in March, 2016, was reported as giving a reduced valuation to the company.[14] Peter Finter became chief marketing officer in September 2016.[15] Matt Cain replaced Bob Wiederhold as CEO in April 2017. [16]

The company raised funding from Accel Partners, North Bridge Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund, Redpoint Ventures, Ignition Partners, and others.[17] Couchbase completed its initial public offering on July 21, 2021, and is listed on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol BASE.[18]

Recognition include the 2012 Infoworld Bossie award,[19] Dataweek 2012 award,[20] Always-On Global award,[21] VentureWire's 50 FASTTech companies[22] GigaOM's Structure 50 list[23] and the Gartner cool vendor award.[24]

M&A Activity

[edit]

On June 20 2025, Couchbase announced it had entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Haveli Investments (led by ex-Vista Equity Partners president Brian Sheth) for $1.5 billion. Under the terms of the deal, Couchbase shareholders will receive $24.50 per share in cash—representing a 29 % premium to the closing price immediately prior and a 67 % premium to the March 27 2025 price. The merger agreement includes a “go-shop” period expiring June 23, 2025, during which Couchbase may solicit superior proposals. Closing is expected in H2 2025, subject to customary regulatory and shareholder approvals.[25][26]

Couchbase key milestones

[edit]

2010

  • June 2010 – Membase project begins. NoSQL’s rise and the Membase launch notes the project was open-sourced in mid-2010 by memcached leaders with Zynga and NHN (now Naver). [27]WIRED

2011

2012

  • Jan 2012 – Couchbase Server 1.8 GA. Rebranded Membase line.[30] Scribd
  • Dec 2012 – Couchbase Server 2.0 GA with JSON document store, distributed indexing/query, incremental MapReduce, and XDCR.[31] [32] InfoQ, The Register, Database Trends and Applications

2014

  • May 2014 – Couchbase Mobile 1.0. Couchbase’s mobile stack for iOS/Android with local data store and sync gateway.[33] InformationWeek
  • Oct 2014 – ForestDB engine announced (B+-trees). Couchbase replaces its storage engine with ForestDB for performance/transactions.[34] InfoQ

2015

  • Oct 2015 – Couchbase Server 4.0 introduces multi-dimensional scaling, geospatial indexes and new query language N1QL (SQL++). SQL-like query leap.[35] InfoWorld
  • Dec 2015 – Couchbase Mobile 1.1. 1.1 drop (Lite & Sync Gateway enhancements).[36] Dzone

2016

  • Feb 2016 – Couchbase Mobile 1.2 (enterprise-grade upgrades incl. ForestDB in Lite).[37] TDWI
  • Nov 2016 – Server 4.6 Developer Preview with FTS improvements, XDCR with globally ordered conflict resolution, and real-time connectors for Spark 2.0 and Kafka.[38][39] InfoQ, ADTmag

2017

  • Oct 2017 – Server 5.0 GA (Full-Text Search service broad availability; ephemeral buckets).[40] Altoros

2018

  • Aug 2018 – Couchbase Mobile 2.1.[41] SDTimes
  • Oct 2018 – Couchbase Server 6.0 GA; Analytics Service for JSON (SQL++/no-ETL) and the Kubernetes Autonomous Operator introduced around this period.[42] VentureBeat, 1PR Newswire

2019

  • Apr 2019 – Couchbase Mobile 2.5 adds Predictive Query API (DP), enhanced logging, fine-grained replication events, expanded Sync Gateway monitoring.[43] VentureBeat

2020

  • Jan 2020 – Server 6.5 adds distributed ACID transactions; Mobile 2.7/SG 2.7. 6.5 momentum.[44] TechTarget
  • Jul 2020 – “Couchbase Cloud” (later Capella) GA on AWS. Managed DBaaS launch.[45] VentureBeat
  • Aug 2020 – Server 6.6 GA. Performance and manageability updates.[46] VentureBeat

2021

  • Jul 2021 – Server 7.0 GA, fusing NoSQL flexibility with relational concepts (collections/scopes, SQL transactions).[47] The Register
  • Oct/Nov 2021 – Capella (managed DBaaS) launch/branding on AWS.[48] CRN
  • Oct 2021 – Couchbase Lite 3.0 & Sync Gateway 3.0 (C API for broader devices, SQL++ on mobile).[49] GitHub

2022

  • June 2022 – Capella on Google Cloud. Multi-cloud expansion.[50] IoT Now

2023

  • Jan 19, 2023 – Capella on Microsoft Azure.[51] InfoWorld
  • Nov/Dec 2023 – Capella Analytics (a.k.a. Columnar) announced.[52] forums.theregister.com, Database Trends and Applications

2024

  • Mar 2024 – Server 7.6 GA adds Vector Search & SQL++ enhancements. Vector search across Server/Capella.[53] Blocks and Files
  • Aug 2024 – Couchbase Lite 3.2 & Sync Gateway 3.3 (LTS) with vector search integration. Mobile/edge vector search availability.[54] Blocks and Files
  • Dec 2, 2024 – Capella AI Services: independent coverage details Model Service (LLM hosting), Vectorization, Unstructured Data Service, AI Agent Catalog, and AI Functions for SQL++.[55] [56] SiliconANGLE, TechTarget, CRN

2025

  • Jan & May 2025 – 7.6.x maintenance (7.6.5/7.6.6). Community version trackers reflect current 7.6.x release.[43] VentureBeat
  • Feb 24–25, 2025 – NVIDIA NIM integration.[57] [58]TechTarget, Channel Insider
  • Mar 4, 2025 – Couchbase Edge Server 1.0 GA (lightweight, offline-first, ~1 GB RAM target).[59][60][61] The New Stackedgeir.com, DEVOPSdigest, Database Trends and Applications
  • July 2025 – Capella listed in the new AWS Marketplace “AI Agents & Tools” category. See AWS Marketplace listing and third-party trade coverage of the new category and Capella’s availability.[62][63] Amazon Web Services, Inc.Channel Insider, DEVOPSdigest

Community

[edit]

Couchbase maintains official discussion forums and a Discord server for developers; the “couchbase” tag on Stack Overflow has over 4,000 questions (as of August 2025). Its open-source ecosystem is active on GitHub, including the Couchbase Labs organization with about 890 public repositories (as of August 2025). The independent DB-Engines ranking placed Couchbase 40th among database management systems in August 2025.[64][65][66][67]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Haveli Investments Completes Acquisition of Couchbase". PR Newswire. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  2. ^ Om Malik (March 16, 2010). "NorthScale, a Memcached-focused Startup, Launches". Giga Om. Archived from the original on March 22, 2010. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
  3. ^ "NorthScale Leadership". Company Web site. Archived from the original on March 22, 2010. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
  4. ^ Sean Michael Kerner (May 18, 2010). "Open Source Memcached Vendor NorthScale Gets New CEO and $10 Million". Developer.com. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
  5. ^ "About Membase, Inc". Membase web site. Archived from the original on October 14, 2010. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
  6. ^ "Form D: Notice of Exempt Offering of Securities". United States Securities and Exchange Commission. November 23, 2009. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
  7. ^ David Diaz (December 10, 2009). "Stealth Startup Relaxed Raises $2 Million From Redpoint Ventures For CouchDB Support". Tech Crunch. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
  8. ^ Leena Rao (February 7, 2011). "NoSQL Companies CouchOne And Membase Merge To Form Couchbase". Tech Crunch. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
  9. ^ "Couchbase Secured $14M in Series C Financing". Finsmes Times. August 10, 2011. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
  10. ^ "Couchbase Scores 14m In New Funding". Network World. August 11, 2011. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
  11. ^ "Couchbase Receives $1M Strategic Investment from DOCOMO Capital". Finsmes Times. October 18, 2011. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
  12. ^ Leena Rao (August 28, 2013). "Couchbase Raises $25M To Further Develop NoSQL Database And Expand Into International Markets". Tech Crunch. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
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  14. ^ Deborah Gage (March 15, 2016). "Couchbase Takes $30 Million in Down Round Despite Customer Gains". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
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  29. ^ Taft, Darryl K. (2011-03-16). "Couchbase Delivers NoSQL Server Under New Advisory Board". eWEEK. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
  30. ^ "Couchbase Manual 1.8 | PDF | Computer Cluster | No Sql". Scribd. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
  31. ^ "Couchbase Releases Couchbase Server 2.0 GA". InfoQ. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
  32. ^ "Couchbase Adds Document Database Capabilities with Release of Couchbase Server 2.0". Database Trends and Applications. 2012-12-18. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
  33. ^ "Couchbase Releases NoSQL Mobile Platform | InformationWeek". www.informationweek.com. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
  34. ^ "Couchbase to Replace its Storage Engine with Homegrown ForestDB". InfoQ. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
  35. ^ "Couchbase 4.0 review: The Swiss Army knife of NoSQL". InfoWorld. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
  36. ^ "Announcing the Release of Couchbase Mobile 1.1". dzone.com. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
  37. ^ "Couchbase Releases Server 7 for Modern and Legacy Databases". TDWI. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
  38. ^ "Couchbase 4.6 Developer Preview Released, Adds Real-Time Connectors for Apache Spark 2.0 and Kafka". InfoQ. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
  39. ^ "Couchbase Developer Preview Adds Full-Text Search, Real-Time Analytics -". ADTmag. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
  40. ^ Khizhniak, Alex (2017-10-27). "MongoDB 3.4 vs. Couchbase Server 5.0 vs. DataStax Enterprise 5.0 (Cassandra)". Altoros. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
  41. ^ Newswire, SD Times (2016-02-04). "New release of Couchbase Mobile gives enterprise developers cutting edge data management platform for building always on mobile applications". SD Times. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
  42. ^ Sharma, Shubham (2022-06-02). "Couchbase updates DBaaS offering with Google Cloud support". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
  43. ^ a b Kerner, Sean Michael (2023-08-30). "Couchbase aims to boost developer database productivity with Capella IQ AI tool". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
  44. ^ "Couchbase Server 6.5 improves NoSQL database queries | TechTarget". Search Data Management. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
  45. ^ Kerner, Sean Michael (2024-12-02). "Enterprise AI gets closer to data with Couchbase's new Capella AI services". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
  46. ^ Franzen, Carl (2023-09-29). "Meta quietly unveils Llama 2 Long AI that beats GPT-3.5 Turbo and Claude 2 on some tasks". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
  47. ^ Clark, Lindsay (July 29, 2021). "Databases".
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  49. ^ couchbaselabs. "Releases · couchbaselabs/couchbase-mobile-tools". GitHub. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
  50. ^ Chris, Bach (June 2, 2023). "Couchbase Capella release features new developer platform integrations, great enterprise features".
  51. ^ "Couchbase's managed Capella database now on Microsoft Azure". InfoWorld. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
  52. ^ Blanchard, Sydney (2023-11-27). "Couchbase Centralizes Operational and Real-Time Analytics for Building More Intelligent, Adaptive Applications". Database Trends and Applications. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
  53. ^ Mellor, Chris (2024-09-03). "Couchbase releases AI vector search and Capella Columnar on AWS". Blocks and Files. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
  54. ^ Mellor, Chris (2024-03-04). "Storage News Ticker – March 4, 2024". Blocks and Files. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
  55. ^ "Couchbase introduces Capella AI services for AI agent design and deployment". SiliconANGLE. 2024-12-02. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
  56. ^ "Couchbase unveils suite of services for developing AI | TechTarget". Search Data Management. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
  57. ^ "Couchbase integrates with Nvidia NIM to aid AI development | TechTarget". Search Data Management. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
  58. ^ Smith, Jordan (2025-02-25). "Couchbase Services to Integrate with NVIDIA Microservices". Channel Insider. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
  59. ^ "Couchbase edge server targets connectivity and latency challenges | Edge Industry Review". www.edgeir.com. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
  60. ^ "Couchbase Edge Server Released | DEVOPSdigest". www.devopsdigest.com. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
  61. ^ Blanchard, Sydney (2025-03-04). "Couchbase Innovates Affordable, High-Performance Edge Solution for Resource-Constrained Environments". Database Trends and Applications. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
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  65. ^ "Join the Couchbase Discord Server!". Discord. Retrieved 2025-08-25.
  66. ^ "Couchbase Labs". GitHub. Retrieved 2025-08-25.
  67. ^ "DB-Engines Ranking". DB-Engines. Retrieved 2025-08-25.
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