MotherDuck

MotherDuck
DeveloperMotherDuck
Websitemotherduck.com

MotherDuck is a serverless cloud analytics platform developed by MotherDuck and built on the open-source DuckDB database system.[1][2]

Features

MotherDuck is designed to query databases that are too small to be considered "big data" and do not need distributed systems to run computations. Queries are run using a "hybrid" combination of local and remote computing. Remote queries are run on serverless compute instances called "Ducklings".[3] It also allows users to write queries using generative AI.[4]

History

Founding and Early Development

MotherDuck was founded in 2022.[5] The company operated in stealth mode until November 2022, when it announced $47.5 million in combined seed and Series A funding.[6]

Product Development

The company launched its platform in private preview in June 2023.[7] General availability was announced in June 2024.[8] As part of the announcement, MotherDuck employees held a mock protest dressed in duck costumes in front of Moscone Center in San Francisco.[9]

References

  1. ^ Atwal, RJ; Boncz, Peter; Boyd, Ryan; Courtney, Antony; Döhmen, Till; Gerlinghoff, Florian; Huang, Jeff; Hwang, Joseph; Hyde, Raphael; Felder, Elena; Lacouture, Jacob; LeMaout, Yves; Leskes, Boaz; Liu, Yao; Monahan, Alex; Perkins, Dan; Tereshko, Tino; Tigani, Jordan; Ursa, Nick; Wang, Stephanie; Welsch, Yannick (2024). MotherDuck: DuckDB in the cloud and in the client (PDF). Proceedings of the 14th Conference on Innovative Data Systems Research (CIDR '24). Chaminade, Hawaii, USA. Retrieved 29 January 2026.
  2. ^ Bek, Nate (2022-11-15). "Seattle data analytics startup MotherDuck emerges from stealth, reveals $47.5M in funding". GeekWire. Retrieved 2026-01-28.
  3. ^ Needham, Mark; Hunger, Michael; Simons, Michael (27 August 2024). DuckDB in Action. Simon and Schuster. pp. 144–147. ISBN 978-1-63343-725-8. Retrieved 5 February 2026.
  4. ^ Lee, Wei-Meng (5 December 2024). DuckDB: Up and Running. "O'Reilly Media, Inc.". p. 270. ISBN 978-1-0981-5966-5. Retrieved 5 February 2026.
  5. ^ Bek, Nate (2023-09-20). "Seattle startup MotherDuck raises $52.5M at a $400M valuation to fuel DuckDB analytics platform". GeekWire. Retrieved 2026-01-28.
  6. ^ MotherDuck. "MotherDuck Raises $47.5 Million at $175M Valuation". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2026-01-28.
  7. ^ "MotherDuck Announces 1st Release of Next-Gen Cloud Analytics Platform After Raising $47.5M". BigDATAwire. Retrieved 2026-01-28.
  8. ^ Simone, Stephanie (2024-06-12). "MotherDuck Announces the General Availability of its Platform". Database Trends and Applications. Retrieved 2026-01-30.
  9. ^ Reich, Greta. "Here's why people in duck costumes were wandering downtown San Francisco". SFGATE. Retrieved 2026-02-05.