MongoDB has been a unicorn since 2013 — now it's got a new CFO, hinting at a possible IPO

Michael Gordon

(MongoDB) MongoDB CFO Michael Gordon

Here's a hint that high-flying database startup MongoDB may be pondering an IPO: on Monday, it announced it hired a new CFO, Michael Gordon.

Gordon replaces previous CFO Sydney Carey who left in February (and landed at internet security company Zscaler)

Gordon was most recently working as CFO of New York Internet marketing company Yodle, who filed paperwork with the SEC for an IPO a year ago, but has yet to complete it.

But Gordon's real claim to fame is over a decade working as a managing director for Merrill Lynch where he worked on many IPOs, mergers, and acquisitions.

MongoDB became a unicorn worth over $1 billion way back in 2013 and has been rumored to be kicking the tires for a possible IPO ever since.

But venture money has been flowing like a river to late-stage startups, so instead of going public, Mongo opted to raise another $80 million in January, at a $1.6 billion. (It's raised $311 million in 8 rounds, according to Crunchbase.)

Even with Gordon as CFO, there's no telling how quickly MongoDB would make a move. We reached out to MongoDB and asked what it is saying about going public these days but it declined comment on that, saying it "remains focused" on running its core business.

Still, hiring a former investment banker indicates the startup is at least putting some puzzle pieces in place do something big, if not an IPO, than maybe an acquisition offer it can't refuse.

MongoDB makes something known as a no-SQL database which is a popular method to store lots of documents as part of the big data craze. It say it has 2,000 customers and 1,000 partners.

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