MariaDB Corp. announces plans to go public as an SPAC

Thanks to a merger, the company will be abler to go public with a value of almost 600 million euros

MariaDB Corp., which sells a commercial version of the open-source MariaDB database management system, announced this week that it is going public. To do this, the company will become a special-purpose acquisition company or SPAC. A SPAC is a public shell company that acquires another company and takes it public.

The company announced its intention to become a publicly listed company in partnership with NYSE-listed Angel Pond Holdings Corporation. Post-transaction, the resulting company will carry the name MariaDB plc with MariaDB’s CEO Michael Howard at the helm.

The transaction will value MariaDB at $672 million (598 million euros). This is just over 14 times its revenue goal for fiscal 2022.

A rarity: successfully commercializing an open source product

MariaDB joins a select group of firms that have made it to the public markets by selling open-source software. The comapny’s database management system was to be a drop-in replacement for the popular MySQL relational DBMS. This followed Oracle Corp.’s acquisition of that software in 2010.

Michael Howard, CEO of MariaDB, said, “MariaDB is the data backbone of services for millions of people every day. Our mission is to build the database for all, providing a perfect balance of simplicity and raw power, including unified transactional and analytical processing for everyday applications. Whether customers move to open source or into the cloud, with MariaDB they are saving up to 90% of their total cost for databases.”

Theodore T. Wang, Ph.D., Chairman and CEO of Angel Pond, also commented. “Angel Pond is truly excited to be partnering with MariaDB to fast track its growth through one of the world’s premier listing platforms for brand awareness, enhanced capital access, and institutionalized governance.”

MariaDB has raised more than $123 million from a long list of investors. Those include Intel Capital Corp., ServiceNow Inc., Open Ocean Capital Ltd., Alibaba Group and OnCorp.