MongoDB vs Redis: Founders, CEOs and History
MongoDB was founded in 2007 by Dwight Merriman, Eliot Horowitz, Kevin Ryan and is led by Chirantan "CJ" Desai. Redis was founded in 2011 by Salvatore Sanfilippo, Ofer Bengal, Yiftach Shoolman and is led by Rowan Trollope.
Company facts
Founders
MongoDB
Dwight Merriman
Dwight Merriman co-founded 10gen (now MongoDB) in 2007 after scaling problems with relational databases at DoubleClick shaped his view of how application data should be stored.
Eliot Horowitz
Eliot Horowitz co-founded 10gen in 2007 and wrote much of MongoDB's original core code. He served as CTO until leaving the company in 2020 and later founded the robotics software company Viam.
Kevin Ryan
Kevin Ryan co-founded 10gen in 2007 alongside Merriman and Horowitz, contributing business leadership and early company-building experience. He has co-founded several other New York companies, including Business Insider, Gilt Groupe, and Zola.
Redis
Salvatore Sanfilippo
Salvatore Sanfilippo (known as 'antirez') is an absolutely legendary Italian software engineer, fiercely brilliant open-source architect, and the profoundly influential founding patriarch fundamentally responsible for inventing the massively dominant Redis dat…
Ofer Bengal
Ofer Bengal is a highly astute Israeli technology entrepreneur, fiercely visionary corporate executive, and the profoundly influential CEO and commercial co-founder fundamentally responsible for corporatizing the massively successful Redis open-source project…
Yiftach Shoolman
Yiftach Shoolman is an absolutely brilliant software engineer, fiercely skilled digital architect, and the profoundly influential CTO and technical co-founder fundamentally responsible for programming the incredibly complex enterprise-grade clustering bedrock…
CEOs and their tenures
MongoDB
- Dev Ittycheria2014–2025
Former President and Chief Executive Officer
Grew MongoDB from an open-source project into a company with $2.0B of fiscal 2025 revenue, with Atlas becoming the main revenue engine.
Source - Chirantan "CJ" Desai2025–present
President and Chief Executive Officer
In his first full quarters, revenue growth accelerated to 30% in Q2 fiscal 2027 and MongoDB reported three consecutive quarters of positive GAAP EPS.
Source - Mike Berry2025–present
Chief Financial Officer
Has highlighted operating leverage, with non-GAAP operating margin reaching 24% in Q2 fiscal 2027.
Source
Redis
- Yiftach Shoolman2011–present
Co-Founder
Led product engineering and enterprise scaling for the in-memory data structure platform, overseeing the critical modules and cluster architectures adopted by Fortune 500 companies.
Source - Rowan Trollope2023–present
Chief Executive Officer
Steered Redis into the generative AI era, optimized enterprise SaaS operations, and established long-term commercial software defensibility.
Source
Timeline: MongoDB and Redis side by side
2007MongoDB
The 10gen Launch
The founders launch 10gen, pioneering the flexible document database architecture.
2009Redis
Salvatore Sanfilippo Releases Open-Source Redis
Developed in Sicily as an in-memory key-value store for web log analysis, Redis was open-sourced on GitHub in March 2009.
2011Redis
Garantia Data Founded by Bengal and Shoolman
Ofer Bengal and Yiftach Shoolman established Garantia Data in Tel Aviv to provide automated cloud hosting for Redis.
2014MongoDB
The WiredTiger Acquisition
Facing data integrity criticism, MongoDB acquires WiredTiger, rewriting its core engine.
2014Redis
Company Rebranded to Redis Labs
Adopted the name Redis Labs to emphasize its commitment to the in-memory technology ecosystem and multi-cloud DBaaS.
2015Redis
Salvatore Sanfilippo Joins Redis Labs
Redis Labs hired creator Salvatore Sanfilippo to lead open-source architecture while expanding commercial enterprise modules.
2016MongoDB
The Atlas Debut
To monetize its user base, MongoDB launches Atlas, securing cloud revenue.
2017MongoDB
Nasdaq IPO
MongoDB listed on Nasdaq under the ticker MDB in October 2017.
2018MongoDB
The License Change
Fighting aggressive cloud leaders, MongoDB executes the controversial SSPL license shift, protecting its IP.
2019Redis
Introduction of Redis Streams and Multi-Model Features
Expanded beyond caching into stream processing, JSON document storage, full-text search, and graph modeling.
2020Redis
Sanfilippo Steps Down & $100M Series F Unicorn Round
Sanfilippo transitioned leadership to the community; Redis Labs raised $100M at a $1B+ valuation during the cloud migration boom.
2021Redis
Rebranded to Redis & $110M Series G at $4 Billion Valuation
Officially rebranded to Redis; raised $110M led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Tiger Global, crossing $100M ARR.
2023Redis
Rowan Trollope Appointed CEO
Former Five9 CEO Rowan Trollope took the helm, prioritizing enterprise cloud ARR, profitability, and AI vector caching.
2024Redis
Speedb Acquisition & Dual Source-Available Licensing
Acquired storage engine Speedb to launch Redis Flex; updated software licensing to RSALv2 and SSPL.
2025MongoDB
Acquired Voyage AI
MongoDB acquired Voyage AI, a developer of embedding and reranking models, to improve retrieval accuracy for AI applications on Atlas.
2025MongoDB
CJ Desai Named CEO
CJ Desai, previously president of product and engineering at Cloudflare, succeeded Dev Ittycheria as president and CEO in November 2025.
2026MongoDB
30% Quarterly Growth
Q2 fiscal 2027 revenue rose 30% to $771.8M with GAAP net income of $40.9M.
2026Redis
Surpasses $300M ARR Driven by GenAI Vector Caching
Crossed $300 million in ARR, establishing Redis as the premier operational memory layer for enterprise AI agents.
Acquisitions
MongoDB
- Voyage AI2025Undisclosed
- Realm2019$39M
- mLab2018$68M
- WiredTiger2014Undisclosed
Redis
- Decodable2025Undisclosed
- Featureform2025Undisclosed
- Speedb2024Undisclosed
- RDBTools (Alkaline Computing)2019Undisclosed
Questions about MongoDB vs Redis
Who is the CEO of MongoDB, Inc. and Redis, Inc.?
MongoDB, Inc. is led by Chirantan "CJ" Desai and Redis, Inc. is led by Rowan Trollope. Both serve as the top executive responsible for the company's strategy, operations, and financial performance.
When was MongoDB, Inc. founded vs Redis, Inc.?
MongoDB, Inc. was founded in 2007 — 4 years before Redis, Inc., which was founded in 2011. MongoDB, Inc.'s longer operating history gives it a deeper track record but also potentially more institutional inertia compared to the younger Redis, Inc..
How many employees does MongoDB, Inc. have compared to Redis, Inc.?
MongoDB, Inc. employs approximately 5,636 people, while Redis, Inc. employs approximately 1,300. MongoDB, Inc. has the larger workforce at 5,636 employees, compared to Redis, Inc.'s 1,300. A higher headcount does not necessarily imply greater efficiency — it often reflects differences in business model (e.g., manufacturing vs. software).
Where are MongoDB, Inc. and Redis, Inc. headquartered?
Both MongoDB, Inc. and Redis, Inc. are headquartered in United States, meaning they operate under the same primary regulatory and tax environment.
Who founded MongoDB, Inc. and Redis, Inc.?
MongoDB, Inc. was founded by Dwight Merriman, Eliot Horowitz, Kevin Ryan. Redis, Inc. was founded by Salvatore Sanfilippo, Ofer Bengal, Yiftach Shoolman.
Which company has a longer operating history — MongoDB, Inc. or Redis, Inc.?
MongoDB, Inc. has been operating for approximately 19 years, making it the more established of the two companies. Redis, Inc. has been in operation for around 15 years. A longer operating history often signals greater institutional resilience and brand recognition, though it can also mean slower adaptation to new market conditions.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the MongoDB vs Redis overview