A $1.6 billion startup that's aiming to take business from Oracle just filed to go public

• Matt Weinberger
 

• 15h
• 9,424

From left, MongoDB cofounder Elliot Horowitz, and execs Michael Gordon, Dev IttychariaYouTube/devGeeK; MongoDB

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MongoDB, a database startup with over $300 million in venture capital financing, has confidentially filed to go public, reports TechCrunch.

At the time of its last private valuation in 2015, MongoDB was reportedly a $1.6 billion company. The Wall Street Journal reported in May that MongoDB had hired Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to underwrite an IPO.

A change to SEC regulations took effect earlier this summer, allowing any company to confidentially file to go public — a move intended to jump start the IPO market. Previously, this option had only been available to companies under a certain size. 

Earlier this year, MongoDB CEO Dev Ittycheria told Crain's New York that the company was doing "nine figures" of revenue, with "double digit" growth. At the time, Ittycheria named Oracle as the company's biggest target. 

"We believe Oracle is incredibly vulnerable because they've lost the developer's heart and soul," said Ittycheria. 

If MongoDB does go public, it will be the seventh so-called "unicorn" startup to do so in 2017.

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Summer holiday nightmare: The pound is at a 7-year low against the euro

• Will Martin
 

• 7h
• 727

Time for a staycation? Reuters/Phil Noble

LONDON — British holidaymakers jetting off to Europe who haven't yet changed their money face misery, with the pound at a seven year low against the euro.

The pound dropped to its lowest level since 2010 on Wednesday —excluding a very brief period during last October's flash crash— as the strengthening single currency punishes the pound.

The euro/pound currency cross,which is generally how the two are measured against one another, briefly rose to £0.9141 during early trade on Wednesday. That marked the strongest the euro has been against the pound, bar the flash crash, since 2010.

That rally was quashed by the worst of the Eurozone debt crisis, which pushed the euro downwards.

The euro's recent rise against sterling illustrates the diverging economic fortunes of Britain and the eurozone since the Brexit vote. While the single currency area prospers — growth in Q2 exceeded expectations and ran at an annualised rate of 2.2% — the UK's currency is weak, growth is subdued and virtually all risks to the economic outlook are to the downside.

Here's the chart of the euro's rise:Markets Insider

Having hit that record low in early trade, sterling has recovered a little after the latest data from the Office for National Statistics showed that UK unemployment fell to its lowest level since 1975 at the last reading.

The euro has been on a tear against both the pound and the dollar so far in 2017, as investors take note of the improving fortunes of the bloc's economy. EU growth has recovered to its best levels since the eurozone debt crisis.

Meanwhile, the pound remains subdued thanks to British economic weakness and the uncertainty surrounding Brexit negotiations, both of which are expected to continue to negatively impact sterling.

Late last week analysts at Morgan Stanley forecast that the euro will be worth more than Britain's currency by the end of the first quarter of 2018.

In the bank's FX Overview paper at the end of last week, a team led by strategist Hans W. Redeker said that a combination of a stronger euro and a weakening pound will combine to make the euro more valuable than the pound for the first time in its history, and make it — in terms of pure value — the strongest major currency on the planet.

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IMF: It's time to worry about China's 'dangerous' debt

• Will Martin
 

• 7h
• 2,006

A watermelon vendor looks at yuan banknotes at a market in Changzhi, Shanxi province June 21, 2010. REUTERS/Stringer

China's huge debt pile could be the trigger for the next financial crisis as borrowing reaches unsustainable levels, according to a study from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The IMF released its annual report on the Chinese economy, as it does with all major economies, on Tuesday, and while it revised the country's growth outlook upwards for the next four years, the fund also issued a stark warning about rising debt levels.

"The growth outlook has been revised up reflecting strong momentum, a commitment to growth targets, and a recovering global economy," the IMF said in its report.

"But this comes at the cost of further large and continuous increases in private and public debt, and thus increasing downside risks in the medium term."

Credit to the non-financial sector has doubled in the last five years, the report says, and the credit to GDP ratio jumped to 230% last year.

Citing the experiences of other countries which have fuelled growth via taking on debt aggressively, the fund warned that the current trajectory of China's debt is "dangerous."

"International experience suggests that China’s credit growth is on a dangerous trajectory, with increasing risks of a disruptive adjustment or a marked growth slowdown," the report said.

The scale of China's debt binge is revealed by the IMF, noting that to grow Chinese GDP by 5 trillion renminbi in 2015-16, it took around 20 trillion renminbi of new credit. By contrast, in 2007 it required just 6.5 trillion renminbi of borrowing to do so.

Here is the IMF's chart showing just how rapidly debt has grown:IMF

Actual growth that was not fuelled by borrowing was much lower than headline numbers in recent years, the report showed.

"Sustainable growth — growth that can been achieved without excessive credit expansion — was likely much lower than actual growth over the last five years," it said.

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More: China China Debt IMF Chinese GDP