NocoDB, an emerging startup, is setting out to compete with Airtable, a 10-year-old company valued at $11 billion, by presenting a unique approach to no-code database platforms. NocoDB's open source foundation serves as a major selling point, distinguishing it from other startups attempting to challenge Airtable's dominance in the market.
Similar to Airtable, NocoDB enables non-technical users to create new databases. However, its main differentiating factor is its ability to work directly on live production data stored in databases like PostgreSQL, MySQL, or MariaDB, or data warehouses. NocoDB transforms these databases into a "smart spreadsheet" allowing users to access and leverage legacy databases without needing IT input or SQL queries.
This innovative platform empowers business, finance, and marketing teams to connect to live data and collaborate with developers, facilitating the construction of no-code applications. Naveen Rudrappa, NocoDB's UK-based founder and CEO, claims that over 2,000 companies have already used the core open source project, including major corporations like Google, Walmart, American Express, and McAfee.
Rudrappa shared with TechCrunch that NocoDB has seen unprecedented adoption, with 7 million Docker downloads and over 30,000 GitHub stars within a year since its launch. This places NocoDB among the top 350 open source projects worldwide.
A little over a year since its inception, the company has secured a significant seed funding round, amounting to approximately $10.5 million. Institutional backers include Decibel, OSS Capital, Uncorrelated Ventures, and Together.fund. The angel investment side features prominent names such as YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley, WordPress creator Matt Mullenweg, RedHat co-founder Bob Young, early Google investor Ram Shriram, and founders from Cloudera, CockroachDB, PipeDream, Talend, AngelList, BrightRoll, and Freshworks.
The story of NocoDB began in 2017, when Rudrappa was working on a related open source database project aimed at creating APIs to access a MySQL database of UK real estate data. After releasing a prototype on GitHub and receiving overwhelming positive feedback, Rudrappa decided to team up with a friend and started building NocoDB.
Upon its release on GitHub last year, NocoDB garnered over a million downloads within the first 10 weeks. Rudrappa explained that live production data stores can be intimidating for users who are not familiar with backend tech stack. NocoDB addresses this issue by connecting any organizational data source to a spreadsheet interface, empowering users with no coding experience to build workflows and automations that interact with real business data.
With $10.5 million in funding and support from renowned names in the technology sphere, NocoDB is well-positioned to develop a commercial component for their main open source project. This includes a new premium version, currently in private beta, that enables companies to connect to Oracle Database and Snowflake. The commercial version is being developed in response to customer requests for a working contract and to accommodate the needs of enterprise customers as well as the open source community.
In addition to the commercial version, NocoDB is also working on a managed and hosted cloud version, featuring enterprise-grade features such as connectors, single sign-on (SSO), access control, auditing, and more. Platforms like NocoDB and AppMaster are revolutionizing the no-code market by providing innovative solutions that enable users to build applications without the need for extensive coding knowledge. As the no-code industry continues to evolve, it's worth keeping an eye on the latest developments and platforms like best no-code backend tools and no-code/low-code app development that are shaping the future of software development.
