Summary
MongoDB's first quarter fiscal 2022 revenue reached $181.6 million, up 39.4% from the prior-year quarter. The growth engine is clearly Atlas. Atlas revenue rose 73% year over year and represented 51% of total first quarter revenue, up from 42% a year earlier. Management said Atlas is now nearly a $400 million revenue run rate business. Gross profit was $127.1 million, up 37.2%. Gross margin slipped to 70.0%, down 1.1 percentage points. The company continues to spend heavily. Operating loss widened to $61.4 million, and net loss widened to $64.0 million. Diluted EPS was a loss of $1.04, and the loss widened. Operating margin was negative 33.8%, down 1.6 percentage points. On a non-GAAP basis, loss from operations was $8.4 million, and non-GAAP net loss per share was $0.15.
Cash generation improved. Operating cash flow was $10.2 million, up 273.8%. Capital expenditures were $0.6 million, down 58.3%. Free cash flow, a non-GAAP measure, was $8.4 million. Deferred revenue was $248.3 million, up 28.7%. Remaining performance obligations were $284.1 million, up 35.5%. Those forward-looking metrics suggest customers continue to commit to the platform. The company ended the quarter with over 26,800 customers, including over 3,300 Direct Sales Customers and over 25,300 Atlas customers. Customers with $100,000 or greater in annualized recurring revenue and annualized monthly recurring revenue totaled 1,057. Net ARR expansion rate remained over 120%. MongoDB also expanded cloud partnerships with AWS, Google Cloud, Alibaba, OVH Cloud, and Naver Cloud. Headcount reached 2,745, and the company onboarded over 1,300 employees remotely since the pandemic began. It welcomed its largest summer intern class of 111 interns from 57 schools, chosen from almost 29,000 applicants.
The market opportunity remains large. According to IDC, the worldwide data management software market is forecast to be $73 billion in 2021 and grow to approximately $119 billion in 2025, a 13% compound annual growth rate. MongoDB's platform has been downloaded more than 175 million times, and MongoDB University has more than 1.5 million course registrations. The company now has customers in over 100 countries. These numbers support the land-and-expand model, but they also highlight the competitive intensity in the database market.
Guidance points to continued growth but also continued losses. For the second quarter of fiscal 2022, MongoDB expects revenue of $180.0 million to $183.0 million. For the full fiscal year 2022, revenue guidance is $771.0 million to $784.0 million. On a non-GAAP basis, the second quarter loss from operations is expected to be $24.0 million to $22.0 million. Full year non-GAAP loss from operations is expected to be $76.0 million to $68.0 million. Non-GAAP net loss per share guidance is $0.43 to $0.40 for the second quarter and $1.38 to $1.25 for the full fiscal year. The company does not provide a reconciliation of these non-GAAP guidance measures to GAAP because of the high variability of stock-based compensation and other charges.
Risks remain significant. MongoDB says the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continues to create uncertainty, and it expects revenue to be negatively impacted by the slowdown in activity and other challenges associated with the pandemic in fiscal 2022. Gross margin may decline as Atlas revenue increases because of third-party cloud infrastructure costs. The company has a history of losses and expects to continue incurring operating losses and negative cash flows from operations. It may need additional capital to execute strategic initiatives. Other risks include competition, the ability to expand the sales organization, and the ability to add new customers or increase sales to existing customers. The quarter showed strong demand and improving cash flow, but profitability remains distant.
Forecast
Reported figures
GAAP, from SEC filings| Metric | Q1 FY2022 | Q4 FY2021 | QoQ | Q1 FY2021 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $181.6M | $171.0M | +6.2% | $130.3M | +39.4% |
| Gross profit | $127.1M | $120.0M | +5.9% | $92.7M | +37.2% |
| Gross margin | 70.0% | 70.2% | -0.2 pp | 71.1% | -1.1 pp |
| Research & development | $64.8M | $55.9M | +15.8% | $45.6M | +41.9% |
| Sales & marketing | $97.9M | $97.7M | +0.2% | $69.1M | +41.6% |
| General & administrative | $25.9M | $25.8M | +0.4% | $19.9M | +30.0% |
| Total operating expenses | $188.6M | $179.4M | +5.1% | $134.7M | +40.0% |
| Operating income (loss) | -$61.4M | -$59.4M | -3.5% | -$42.0M | -46.2% |
| Operating margin | -33.8% | -34.7% | +0.9 pp | -32.3% | -1.6 pp |
| Net income (loss) | -$64.0M | -$75.8M | +15.6% | -$54.0M | -18.6% |
| Net margin | -35.2% | -44.3% | +9.1 pp | -41.4% | +6.2 pp |
| Customers | 130,329 | — | — | 89,388 | +45.8% |
Risks
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions continue to disrupt in-person sales, marketing and travel; MD&A states revenue is expected to continue to be negatively impacted by the slowdown in activity and global uncertainty in fiscal 2022, and employees may work remotely through September 1, 2021.
The database market is highly competitive, with legacy providers IBM, Microsoft and Oracle and public cloud providers AWS, GCP and Azure able to bundle competing products and price aggressively; MD&A identifies competition as a factor affecting customer retention and expansion.
Community Server is offered under the SSPL, which has not been approved by the Open Source Initiative or Free Software Foundation and has not been court-interpreted, creating adoption uncertainty; if the AGPL or SSPL are held unenforceable, competitors could use MongoDB software without restrictions.
MongoDB Atlas revenue rose to 51% of total revenue in FY2022 Q1 from 42% in FY2021 Q1, and MD&A says this mix plus third-party cloud infrastructure costs caused gross margin to decline to 70.0% from 71.1%; if Atlas adoption fails or hosting costs rise, margins and results could be harmed.
Company has a history of losses, with net loss widening to $64.0 million in FY2022 Q1 from $54.0 million in FY2021 Q1, and it has non-cancelable multi-year cloud infrastructure commitments requiring payment irrespective of usage; MD&A expects continued operating losses and negative cash flows.
The conditional conversion feature of the 2024 Notes and 2026 Notes was triggered during the quarter ended April 30, 2021, making them convertible at holder option from May 1 to July 31, 2021; cash settlement of conversions could adversely affect liquidity.
Subject to GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, Brazil LGPD, Japan APPI and the May 12, 2021 Biden Executive Order on federal IT security; cross-border transfer uncertainty after the Privacy Shield invalidation may increase compliance costs and impede customer adoption.
Risk of security breaches, including reported ransomware attacks on MongoDB instances due to Community Server users not enabling recommended security settings; remote work has increased phishing and social engineering attempts.
Sales cycle is generally three to nine months and can extend beyond a year for some customers, making revenue recognition timing difficult to predict; MD&A says revenue may vary based on timing and size of new subscriptions and seasonality.
Growth depends on expanding the direct sales force and hiring experienced sales professionals, but remote work and competition for talent may slow productivity; sales and marketing headcount rose to 1,281 as of April 30, 2021 from 922 as of April 30, 2020.
Majority of subscription contracts are one year and customers have no obligation to renew; failure to renew or expand usage would harm results, though net ARR expansion rate remained over 120% during FY2022 Q1.
Company releases forward-looking guidance and may fail to meet it, especially given COVID-19 uncertainty; downward revisions or missed expectations could cause the stock price to decline.
Headcount grew to 2,745 as of April 30, 2021 from 2,020 as of April 30, 2020, straining management and infrastructure; failure to manage growth could impair product quality and compliance.
As of January 31, 2021, had federal NOL carryforwards of approximately $1.2 billion and state NOLs of $1.1 billion; ownership changes under Section 382 or regulatory changes could limit use and increase future tax liability.
SaaS KPIs
All quarters →Total Customers
MongoDB Atlas Customers
Direct Sales Customers
Free Cash Flow
Net ARR Expansion Rate
Customers over $100K ARR
Non-GAAP Gross Margin
MongoDB Atlas Revenue % of Total Revenue
Direct Sales Customers Revenue % of Subscription Revenue
MongoDB Enterprise Advanced % of Subscription Revenue
MongoDB Atlas Revenue Growth
Non-GAAP Loss from Operations
Summary, forecast, risks and KPIs are extracted from MongoDB, Inc.'s SEC filings for Q1 FY2022 (10-Q / 10-K and the 8-K earnings release); GAAP figures in the summary are checked against the reported XBRL data. They can contain errors; the filings are authoritative. Processed Oct 1, 2026.