SingleStore (MemSQL)
Enterprise SoftwareUSA
New to Unitard
βοΈ Markdown
- π¦Became a unicornJul 2022
- πPeak valuation$1.32 Billion β22
- πBecame a Unitard~2023
- πΈLast valuationβ
Current status
Private; Vector Capital majority buyout reported near $500M (Sep 2025), below ~$1.3B peak
The rise & fall
6 moments Β· 2011β2025The key moments, with employee sentiment along the way.
2011
2011
Founded as MemSQL
Ex-Facebook engineers Eric Frenkiel and Nikita Shamgunov build a fast in-memory SQL database out of Y Combinator.
Wikipedia
Jul 2022
Jul 2022
The peak: the $1.32B Series F-2$1.32B
The round that makes SingleStore a unicorn is also the high-water mark.
Bloomberg
2022β23
From the inside Β· Glassdoor reviews, 2022β23
Glassdoor reviews from that stretch praised the database technology and engineering talent while flagging churn at the top β several C-suite departures in a short span β and an IPO employees said kept receding.
2023
2023
Marked out of the club
Secondary-market pricing drifts below the $1B line while the IPO window stays shut.
Bloomberg
Sep 2025
Sep 2025
Vector Capital takes the wheel at ~$500M$500M
A majority buyout reported near $500M β well under half the 2022 peak.
Bloomberg
π¬ entries paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor β; dated facts carry their source.
How it happened
SingleStore (formerly MemSQL) provides a database platform for modern data workloads spanning transactions, analytics and AI. Last valued near $1.32B (Series F-2, 2022), it later fell out of the unicorn club; in 2025 Vector Capital took a majority stake in a deal reported near $500M.
Source: Bloomberg; Vector Capital majority buyout ~$500M, Sep 2025
Founders & leadership
- Eric Frenkielco-founder & CEO (Stanford; came from Facebook partner engineering)
- Nikita Shamgunovco-founder & CTO (a decade on the SQL Server kernel team at Microsoft)
Current roles as self-reported on LinkedIn, retrieved 2026-08-20. See our methodology.
