Startups > Cockroach Labs

Cockroach Labs

CockroachDB helps enterprises build resilient, globally-distributed SQL databases that scale horizontally.

Series F $633M total Founded 2015 New York, New York

Cockroach Labs builds CockroachDB, a distributed SQL database that combines the ACID transaction guarantees and relational model of traditional databases with the horizontal scalability and fault tolerance of NoSQL systems. It's PostgreSQL wire-compatible and designed to survive datacenter failures with zero manual intervention. The platform serves enterprises and innovators requiring always-on, globally distributed databases that scale seamlessly across cloud providers and on-premises infrastructure.

Problem solved

Organizations need a relational database that can scale horizontally across regions and survive infrastructure failures without manual intervention or sacrificing ACID transaction guarantees.

Target customer

Fortune 500 and Forbes Global 2000 enterprises, high-scale SaaS platforms, and fintech companies requiring multi-region deployment, strong consistency, and zero-downtime scalability.

Website LinkedIn Crunchbase

Founders

Spencer Kimball

CEO

Co-created GIMP in 1995, ex-Google File System team member, co-founded ViewFinder (acquired by Square/Block in 2013).

Peter Mattis

CTO

Co-created GIMP in 1995, ex-Google File System team member, left Square to co-found Cockroach Labs.

Ben Darnell

Chief Architect

Ex-Google Reader team member with expertise in distributed systems and database architecture.

Funding history

Seed $6.3M June 2015 Led by Benchmark Capital

Series A $6.3M June 2015 Led by Benchmark Capital

Series B $20M 2016 Led by Redpoint Ventures

Series C $27.5M August 2017 Led by GV (Google Ventures)

Series D $88.6M May 2020 Led by Unknown

Series E $160M January 2021 Led by Altimeter Capital

Series F $278M December 16, 2021 Led by Greenoaks · Altimeter, BOND, Benchmark, Coatue, FirstMark, GV, Index Ventures, J.P. Morgan, Lone Pine Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Tiger Global

Total raised: $633M

Industries

Cloud Computing Database Enterprise Software Software

Pricing

CockroachDB Serverless (Basic) charges by Request Units and storage; development workloads typically $100–$500/month, production serverless $1,000–$8,000/month. Small production clusters (single region) range $30,000–$60,000 annually. Self-hosted requires licensing fees for companies with >$10M revenue based on CPU cores; startups below threshold get free enterprise version. As of December 2024, compute pricing reduced with unbundled data transfer and backup costs.

Notable customers

Netflix, Nubank, Comcast, eBay, Booking.com, DoorDash, FanDuel, Cisco Systems, Roblox, Electronic Arts, BestBuy, SpaceX, NVIDIA, Squarespace, Home Depot, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, OpenAI, CoreWeave, Adobe, UiPath, Fortinet, AllSaints, Bose, Shipt, Starburst Data, Form3

Integrations

PostgreSQL ecosystem tools (via wire compatibility), major cloud providers (AWS, Google Cloud, Azure), Kubernetes, Terraform

Website

cockroachlabs.com/

Competitors

PostgreSQL

Open-source single-node relational database; lacks native horizontal scaling and multi-region fault tolerance that CockroachDB provides.

Amazon Aurora

AWS-proprietary cloud-native database with strong consistency but tight AWS coupling; CockroachDB runs on any cloud or on-premises.

Google Cloud Spanner

Google's managed global database with strong consistency but proprietary, expensive, and limited to GCP; CockroachDB is open-source and multi-cloud.

MongoDB

Document-oriented NoSQL database with flexible schema; lacks ACID transactions and relational guarantees central to CockroachDB's value.

Apache Cassandra

Distributed NoSQL optimized for write-heavy workloads but lacks strong consistency and relational query language that CockroachDB provides.

Why this matters: Cockroach Labs has built one of the few truly practical solutions for the 'global consistent database' problem that Google solved internally with Spanner. With $633M in funding at a $5B valuation, massive enterprise adoption (Netflix, Nubank, SpaceX), and the founders' deep experience from Google's distributed systems work, CockroachDB represents a fundamental shift in how enterprises think about database infrastructure at scale.

Best for: Enterprise organizations and high-scale platforms requiring PostgreSQL compatibility with global distribution, automatic failover across regions, and ACID transaction guarantees without vendor lock-in.

Use cases

Global Financial Transaction Processing

Financial services companies like Nubank use CockroachDB to process transactions across multiple geographic regions while maintaining strict ACID consistency. The database ensures regulatory compliance and prevents data inconsistencies that could result in financial losses, all while automatically handling datacenter failures without manual intervention.

Multi-Region E-Commerce Scaling

Large retailers and marketplaces deploy CockroachDB to handle inventory management, orders, and payments across regions with consistent data. When a region fails, the system automatically redirects traffic to healthy nodes with zero downtime, preventing lost sales during outages.

Gaming and Real-Time Analytics

Gaming platforms like Roblox and Mythical Games use CockroachDB for user state, economy systems, and analytics requiring strong consistency across global player bases. The horizontal scaling handles unpredictable player spikes without degradation or manual scaling operations.

Regulatory Compliance and Data Residency

Companies handling sensitive customer data deploy CockroachDB on-premises or in specific regions to meet data residency requirements while maintaining a single relational database model. The distributed architecture enables compliance across jurisdictions without managing separate database instances.

Alternatives

PostgreSQL with Citus Open-source PostgreSQL extension for horizontal scaling; requires more operational overhead than CockroachDB's managed approach and lacks automatic multi-region failover.

Google Cloud Spanner Managed global database with stronger consistency guarantees but proprietary, GCP-locked, and significantly higher costs than multi-cloud CockroachDB.

Amazon Aurora AWS-managed relational database with strong performance in AWS ecosystem but lacks true multi-cloud portability and costs more for global distribution requirements.

YugabyteDB Open-source distributed SQL database inspired by Spanner; smaller ecosystem and customer base but offers similar multi-region capabilities with PostgreSQL compatibility.

FAQ

What does Cockroach Labs do? +

Cockroach Labs develops CockroachDB, a distributed SQL database that combines the consistency and transactions of traditional relational databases with the horizontal scalability and fault tolerance of NoSQL systems. It's PostgreSQL wire-compatible and can survive datacenter failures automatically without manual intervention.

How much does CockroachDB cost? +

Pricing varies by deployment model. Serverless development workloads cost $100–$500/month, production serverless $1,000–$8,000/month based on request units. Small production clusters range $30,000–$60,000 annually. Self-hosted requires CPU-based licensing for companies with >$10M revenue; startups qualify for free enterprise licensing.

How does CockroachDB differ from PostgreSQL or MySQL? +

CockroachDB is PostgreSQL wire-compatible but adds automatic horizontal scaling across regions, built-in multi-region failover, and ACID guarantees without operator intervention. Traditional PostgreSQL and MySQL are single-node or limited replication databases that don't provide CockroachDB's automatic geographic distribution and resilience.

What companies use CockroachDB? +

Fortune 500 and Global 2000 enterprises including Netflix, Nubank, Comcast, eBay, Booking.com, DoorDash, and Cisco Systems. Notable innovators like SpaceX, NVIDIA, Roblox, OpenAI, and CoreWeave also use it. The company has over 200 customers with tens of thousands of deployed clusters globally.

How does CockroachDB compare to Google Cloud Spanner? +

Both provide global distribution and strong consistency, but CockroachDB is open-source, multi-cloud capable, and self-hosted or managed options. Google Cloud Spanner is proprietary, GCP-locked, and more expensive. CockroachDB offers better cost efficiency and vendor flexibility for organizations using multiple cloud providers.