Altibase
Altibase is a privately held database company founded in 1999 that emerged from research conducted by South Korea's Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute.
Profile
Altibase develops a hybrid in-memory and on-disk relational database system for enterprises requiring high-speed transaction processing and real-time data access.
Altibase is a privately held database company founded in 1999 that emerged from research conducted by South Korea's Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute. The company commercialized its hybrid in-memory and on-disk database engine in 2000 and rebranded under the Altibase name in 2001. Today, it serves over 700 customers across 8,000+ installations globally, including 22 Fortune Global 500 companies in telecommunications, finance, manufacturing, and public services.
The company operates with roughly 100–150 employees across offices in Seoul, New York, Beijing, Singapore, and Tokyo. Altibase's core product is a hybrid relational database management system that allows simultaneous access to memory-resident and disk-resident data through a unified interface. In August 2023, the company released Altibase V7.3, its cloud-optimized version featuring hybrid partitioning at the partition level and Kubernetes utilities for auto-scaling.
A significant strategic shift occurred in March 2023 when Altibase discontinued its open-source edition and reverted to proprietary licensing, requiring enterprise customers to move to paid subscription tiers. The company has won recognition including a Global Premium Commercial Software Presidential Award for V7.3. Recent growth comes from partnerships with KISSCO Japan and ATP–Tradesoft in Turkey, plus expanded presence in Southeast Asia. Altibase remains unfunded by external venture capital, operating as a bootstrap-funded private company.
Who buys this
- Telecommunications carriers running billing and order management systems
- Financial institutions processing equities trading and home banking platforms
- Enterprise retailers and manufacturers managing supply-chain operations
- Government agencies and public utilities operating mission-critical services
- Cloud-native enterprises leveraging Kubernetes-managed multi-node deployments
Publicly disclosed clients
- Samsung Electronics
- AT&T
- China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom
- E*TRADE
- Bloomberg
- HP
- Toshiba Medical
Strengths and what to watch
Strengths
- Proven hybrid architecture combining in-memory and on-disk storage in a single query engine, enabling cost-efficient scaling without data movement
- Established Fortune 500 customer base in telecom and finance with 25+ years of deployments at massive scale (8,000+ installations)
- Cloud-native V7.3 release with Kubernetes utilities, encryption, and partition-level hybrid storage, addressing enterprise cloud adoption
Watch for
- Open-source discontinuation in March 2023 eliminated free-tier adoption path; enterprise-only licensing reduces developer community engagement and limits TAM in open-source-first organizations
- Thin visibility in developed markets outside finance/telecom; primary growth weighted toward Asia-Pacific with minimal presence in competitive North American enterprise database market
- No external funding disclosed and bootstrap-only history limits R&D velocity and competitive product iteration as PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, and cloud databases accelerate innovation cycles
Key Information
- Industry
- NewSQL Databases
- Founded
- 1999
- Employees
- 152
- Headquarters
- Seoul, South Korea
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Altibase?
Altibase is a hybrid in-memory and on-disk relational database system designed for enterprises requiring high-speed transaction processing and real-time data access. Founded in 1999, it serves over 700 customers including 22 Fortune Global 500 companies in telecommunications, finance, manufacturing, and public services.
How does Altibase's hybrid architecture work?
Altibase combines in-memory and on-disk storage through a unified query engine, enabling simultaneous access to both without requiring data movement between tiers. This hybrid design reduces costs while maintaining high-speed transaction processing capabilities essential for large-scale enterprise deployments managing terabytes of operational data.
What companies use Altibase?
Altibase powers mission-critical systems at major enterprises including Samsung Electronics, AT&T, China Mobile, E*TRADE, Bloomberg, HP, and Toshiba Medical. The company serves over 700 customers across 8,000+ global installations, with particularly strong market presence in telecommunications, finance, manufacturing, and government services.
Is Altibase open source?
Altibase discontinued its open-source edition in March 2023 and shifted to enterprise-only proprietary licensing. Existing open-source users were required to migrate to paid subscription tiers, eliminating the free-tier adoption path that previously supported developer community engagement and evaluation by smaller organizations.
Does Altibase support cloud deployments?
Altibase V7.3, released in August 2023, is cloud-optimized featuring Kubernetes utilities for auto-scaling, hybrid partitioning at the partition level, and encryption. This enables enterprises to deploy Altibase on cloud-native infrastructure while maintaining the hybrid architecture benefits of simultaneous in-memory and on-disk access.
What industries does Altibase primarily serve?
Altibase serves multiple sectors including telecommunications carriers managing billing systems, financial institutions processing equities trading, enterprise retailers handling supply chains, government agencies running mission-critical services, and manufacturers. Its strongest market presence is in Asia-Pacific, particularly in telecommunications and financial services sectors across the region.
How Altibase compares
Direct head-to-head against 2 competitors. Picked by 7wData.
Altibase
- Positioning
- Altibase develops a hybrid in-memory and on-disk relational database system for enterprises requiring high-speed transaction processing and real-time data access.
- Customer segments
- Telecommunications carriers running billing and order management systems
- Strengths
- Proven hybrid architecture combining in-memory and on-disk storage in a single query engine, enabling cost-efficient scaling without data movement
- Watch for
- Open-source discontinuation in March 2023 eliminated free-tier adoption path; enterprise-only licensing reduces developer community engagement and limits TAM in open-source-first organizations
SingleStore
- Positioning
- Unified real-time database for concurrent OLTP, analytics, and vector search targeting enterprise AI workloads.
- Customer segments
- Fintech, telecom, retail, and logistics enterprises needing real-time analytics and transactions in one system.
- Strengths
- Single system handles concurrent OLTP and OLAP at petabyte scale, eliminating ETL movement between transactional and analytical stores.
- Watch for
- Customers cite pricing that scales steeply with memory-intensive workloads, becoming costly for large data estates above double-digit TB.
- Recent moves
- September 2025: growth buyout by Vector Capital at approximately $500M, down from a $1.3B 2022 valuation.
Volt Active Data
- Positioning
- In-memory real-time decisioning platform for telecom and financial services requiring sub-10ms transactional response.
- Customer segments
- Telecom carriers and financial institutions running 5G charging, fraud detection, and subscriber session management at high throughput.
- Strengths
- Sub-10ms end-to-end decisioning engineered specifically for telecom 5G charging and real-time fraud scenarios at carrier scale.
- Watch for
- Series C stage with modest capital limits competitive headroom versus larger cloud-native vendors, raising enterprise procurement risk flags.
- Recent moves
- August 14, 2025: launched Volt for Streaming Decisions, unifying stream processing and transactional decisioning in a single product.
Sources
- en.wikipedia.org — Founding in 1999, RT project origins, open-source discontinuation March 2023, V7.3 release August 2023, hybrid architecture and product history
- www.linkedin.com — Company size 51–200 employees, headquarters at 40 Wall Street New York, offices in Seoul/Singapore, leadership names, Fortune 500 customer count
- github.com — Confirmation of open-source discontinuation announcement March 17 2023, repository archival status, shift to Enterprise Edition subscription
- www.crunchbase.com — Unfunded company status, founding date 1999, customer count 700+, industry classification