$1.6 billion startup MongoDB could be worth less than $1 billion when its IPO happens next week

Unicorn startup MongoDB has taken another step toward its IPO by offering a price range for its shares.

It plans to price shares between $18 and $20 apiece it said in an updated prospectus filed with the SEC. The IPO is generally expected to take place on October 19.

At the mid price, MongoDB would raise about $152 million and be worth about $930 million, according to PitchBook.

That's quite a bit shy of its last valuation as a private company of $1.6 billion.

The New York-based database company has been a darling of the VC world. It raised over $311 million from private investors with later investors paying as much as $16.72/share, according to PitchBook (and earning dividends on those shares).

MongoDB offers database software that's particularly good for today's messy, big data applications, a market known as "No-SQL" databases. It fills a somewhat different technical niche than the traditional databases sold by Oracle and Microsoft. However, as No-SQL tech has grown in popularity, MongoDB has faced competition with traditional vendors and newcomers alike who offer their own versions of No SQL, including Oracle and Amazon Web Services, as well as other startups like Couchbase.

Even so, MongoDB is the granddaddy of this new market. It makes the most popular No-SQL option and is now the fourth most popular database on the market today, according to market watching site DB-Engines.

As for its financials, the company isn't profitable, albeit revenues are growing and losses are shrinking.

MongoDB reported $67.9 million in revenue in the six months ending July 31, and lost $45.76 million.  It did $45.1 million in revenue over the same period last year and lost about the same amount of money, $45.33 million. That's a loss of $1.71 a share over those same six months, versus $1.93 a share in the same period last year.

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