This Cockroach Labs company profile covers the company's valuation, revenue, funding rounds, investors and history. Cockroach Labs works in data infrastructure, with a focus on distributed SQL database. It was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in New York, New York, United States. Its latest valuation on record is US$5 billion (December 2021). Every figure links to a public source, and anything the company hasn't disclosed is marked as such.
Revenue
| Metric | Value | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total funding | About US$633 million | December 2021 | Cockroach Labs |
Funding history
| Date | Round | Amount | Valuation | Investors | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 2021 | Series F | US$278M | US$5B | Greenoaks (lead) | Cockroach Labs |
| Jan 2021 | Series E | US$160M | US$2B | Altimeter Capital (lead) | VentureBeat |
Cockroach Labs timeline
Key dates from the sources on this page, oldest first. Metric snapshots are listed after the funding events.
- 2015 — Cockroach Labs is founded in New York by Spencer Kimball (CEO), Peter Mattis and Ben Darnell.
- Jan 2021 — Series E: US$160M, valuing the company at US$2B. Investors: Altimeter Capital (lead).
- Dec 2021 — Series F: US$278M, valuing the company at US$5B. Investors: Greenoaks (lead).
- December 2021 — Total funding: About US$633 million.
Investors
Overview
Cockroach Labs makes CockroachDB, a distributed SQL database designed to keep running even when servers, data centres or entire cloud regions fail. Traditional relational databases typically run on a single primary server, which becomes a bottleneck and a point of failure as applications grow globally. CockroachDB spreads data automatically across many machines and locations while still offering the familiar SQL language and strong consistency guarantees that businesses rely on for transactions. It's used for payments, banking, retail inventory, gaming, identity systems and other applications where downtime or data loss is unacceptable.
Spencer Kimball, the CEO, Peter Mattis and Ben Darnell founded Cockroach Labs in New York in 2015. Kimball and Mattis had worked together at Google and co-created GIMP, the open-source image editor, as students. Darnell was also a Google engineer. CockroachDB was inspired by Google's Spanner database, and its name reflects the goal of a database that's nearly impossible to kill.
Products
- CockroachDB: a distributed SQL database compatible with PostgreSQL's wire protocol, available to self-host.
- CockroachDB Cloud: fully managed versions on major cloud providers, including serverless and dedicated options.
- Multi-region capabilities: controlling where data lives to reduce latency and meet data residency rules.
- Vector search: support for storing and querying vector embeddings for AI applications.
Funding
Cockroach Labs raised from investors including Benchmark, Index Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, GV, Tiger Global, Coatue and BOND. In January 2021 it raised a US$160 million Series E at a US$2 billion valuation, led by Altimeter Capital. In December 2021 it raised a US$278 million Series F at a US$5 billion valuation, led by Greenoaks, bringing total funding to about US$633 million. We haven't found a newer priced round, so readers should treat the 2021 valuation as historical.
Licensing changes
CockroachDB began as open-source software. Like several database companies, Cockroach Labs later changed its licensing to protect its business from cloud providers offering its software as a service. In 2024 it moved to a model in which CockroachDB is offered under an enterprise licence, with a free tier for individuals and small businesses below a revenue threshold and paid licences for larger companies. The change drew criticism from some open-source advocates but reflected a broader trend among infrastructure companies balancing community adoption with revenue.
Business model
Cockroach Labs earns revenue from enterprise licences for self-hosted deployments and from consumption-based pricing for CockroachDB Cloud. Customers are typically large companies running mission-critical applications. The company doesn't publish revenue, so we show it as not disclosed.
Competition
Cockroach Labs competes with Google Cloud Spanner, Amazon Aurora DSQL, Yugabyte, TiDB (PingCAP), Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB and traditional databases such as Oracle and PostgreSQL. Its advantages are cloud neutrality, PostgreSQL compatibility and a strong track record with demanding financial and retail customers.
Cockroach Labs at a glance
Cockroach Labs is a New York database company founded in 2015 by former Google engineers Spencer Kimball, Peter Mattis and Ben Darnell. It makes CockroachDB, a resilient distributed SQL database. It raised a US$278 million Series F at a US$5 billion valuation in December 2021, led by Greenoaks, bringing total funding to about US$633 million.
Timeline
- 2014: CockroachDB begins as an open-source project.
- 2015: Cockroach Labs is founded in New York.
- 2017: releases CockroachDB 1.0.
- January 2021: raises US$160 million at US$2 billion.
- December 2021: raises US$278 million at US$5 billion.
- 2024: changes licensing model to an enterprise licence with a free tier.
Why distributed SQL matters
As companies serve customers worldwide, they need databases that stay available during outages, keep data close to users for speed, and comply with laws requiring data to stay in certain countries. Traditional databases can be replicated, but failover often involves downtime and complexity. NoSQL databases scale horizontally but often give up strong consistency, making them harder to use for financial transactions. Distributed SQL aims to combine the scalability of NoSQL with the consistency and familiarity of relational databases.
Who uses CockroachDB
CockroachDB is used by banks and payment companies for transaction systems, retailers for inventory and orders, gaming companies for player data, and technology companies for identity, metadata and multi-region applications that must survive failures.
Risks
- Cloud provider competition: hyperscalers offer their own distributed SQL services.
- Licensing backlash: licence changes can push some users to alternatives.
- Stale valuation: its last round was in 2021.
Questions for engineering teams
- How much downtime can your application tolerate, and what does it cost?
- Do you need data residency in specific countries?
- How compatible is your existing PostgreSQL code with the database?
CockroachDB and AI applications
AI applications need reliable databases for user data, transactions, conversation histories and metadata, often across regions. Cockroach Labs has added vector search so developers can store embeddings alongside operational data, reducing the need for a separate vector database. As AI agents perform transactions on behalf of users, consistency and resilience become even more important, which supports demand for distributed databases.
Valuation context
Cockroach Labs' US$5 billion valuation was set at the 2021 peak for infrastructure software. Public database companies such as MongoDB saw their valuations fluctuate significantly afterwards. Any new round would be judged on cloud revenue growth and enterprise adoption since then.
Who funds database companies
Database companies take years to mature because enterprises adopt new databases cautiously for critical systems. Investors therefore back them for long periods, often through several large rounds, betting on durable revenue once customers commit.
Customers often run CockroachDB alongside other databases, using it specifically for the systems where resilience and global consistency matter most.
Latest developments (October 2026)
Cockroach Labs has not announced a new priced round since its 2021 Series F at US$5 billion. Business updates in 2026 included a partnership with IBM to make CockroachDB available through IBM Cloud and on IBM Power systems, and the appointment of Sailesh Munagala as chief financial officer, according to company announcements summarised by StockAnalysis. Distributed SQL demand has been supported by AI applications that need resilient, globally available databases. The 2021 valuation remains the latest sourced figure.
What to watch
Watch for a new funding round or IPO plans, cloud revenue growth, AI-related features and competition from cloud providers. Our guide to the largest private SaaS companies covers related companies.
Takeaways
Engineering teams can build applications that survive regional outages without giving up SQL. Founders can see how infrastructure companies adjust licensing to protect revenue. Investors should treat the 2021 valuation as historical.
Sources
Every figure on this page comes from the public sources below. Where sources disagreed, we used the company's own announcement or a primary news report. Private-company data changes; check the date beside each figure.
Frequently asked questions
What does Cockroach Labs do?
Cockroach Labs is a data infrastructure / distributed sql database company headquartered in New York, New York, United States. It was founded in 2015.
What is Cockroach Labs's valuation?
Cockroach Labs was valued at US$5 billion as of December 2021, according to CNBC. Private company valuations are set at funding rounds or share sales and can change significantly between them.
How much revenue does Cockroach Labs make?
Cockroach Labs is a private company and has not publicly disclosed its revenue. Figures on third-party sites are usually modelled estimates rather than numbers reported by the company.
What was Cockroach Labs's latest funding round?
The most recent financing we have verified is a series f in Dec 2021: US$278M, at a valuation of US$5B. Source: Cockroach Labs.
Who are Cockroach Labs's investors?
Investors named in public announcements include Greenoaks, Altimeter Capital, Benchmark, Index Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, GV, Tiger Global, Coatue and BOND.
Who founded Cockroach Labs?
Cockroach Labs was founded in 2015 by Spencer Kimball (CEO), Peter Mattis and Ben Darnell.
Is Cockroach Labs a public company?
No. Cockroach Labs is a private company (private, venture backed), so its shares are not traded on a stock exchange and it isn't required to publish its financial results.
Where is Cockroach Labs headquartered?
Cockroach Labs is headquartered in New York, New York, United States.