NebulaGraph
NebulaGraph is an open-source distributed graph database company founded in 2018 by a team of engineers from Alibaba, Tencent, and Huawei.
Profile
NebulaGraph provides an open-source, distributed graph database for storing, querying, and analyzing highly connected data at scale.
NebulaGraph is an open-source distributed graph database company founded in 2018 by a team of engineers from Alibaba, Tencent, and Huawei. The company is headquartered in Beijing, China, and has raised a total of $100 million in funding, including a $80 million Series B round in 2022 led by Sequoia Capital China and GSR Ventures. NebulaGraph's flagship product is a native graph database designed for large-scale, real-time graph analytics, supporting use cases such as fraud detection, knowledge graphs, recommendation engines, and supply chain optimization.
The database is built on a shared-nothing architecture that allows horizontal scaling, and it offers a SQL-like query language (nGQL) and integrations with popular data processing frameworks like Apache Spark and Flink. As of 2025, NebulaGraph claims over 500 enterprise customers, including Tencent, JD.com, and Xiaomi, and has a community of over 10,000 developers. The company reported annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $15 million in 2024, up from $8 million in 2023, and has a headcount of approximately 200 employees.
In 2025, NebulaGraph launched a cloud-managed service (NebulaGraph Cloud) and introduced a new AI-powered graph analytics module called NebulaGraph AI, which integrates with large language models (LLMs) for natural language querying of graph data. The company faces stiff competition from Neo4j, TigerGraph, and Amazon Neptune, and its reliance on the Chinese market (which accounts for 70% of its revenue) exposes it to geopolitical and regulatory risks.
Products by NebulaGraph
Who buys this
- Financial services firms needing real-time fraud detection and anti-money laundering analytics
- E-commerce and social media companies building recommendation engines and knowledge graphs
- Telecommunications and network operators managing complex infrastructure dependencies
- Healthcare and life sciences organizations analyzing drug discovery and patient relationship networks
- Supply chain and logistics companies optimizing routing and inventory management
Publicly disclosed clients
- Tencent
- JD.com
- Xiaomi
- Meituan
- China Merchants Bank
Strengths and what to watch
Strengths
- Open-source licensing (Apache 2.0) with a permissive community model that has attracted over 10,000 developers and 500+ enterprise customers globally
- Shared-nothing distributed architecture that supports horizontal scaling to handle billions of nodes and edges with millisecond query latency
- Strong integration ecosystem including Apache Spark, Flink, and LangChain, enabling graph-enhanced AI and machine learning workflows
Watch for
- Heavy revenue concentration in China (70% of ARR) creates exposure to regulatory changes, data sovereignty laws, and potential US-China tech decoupling
- Competitive pressure from well-funded rivals Neo4j (valued at $2B+), TigerGraph ($1.6B valuation), and Amazon Neptune, which have larger enterprise footprints in North America and Europe
- Leadership turnover risk: co-founder and CTO Simon Zhang departed in early 2025 to start a new venture, and the company has not publicly named a replacement
Key Information
- Industry
- Graph DBs
- Founded
- 2018
- Headquarters
- Beijing, China
Frequently Asked Questions
What is NebulaGraph?
NebulaGraph is an open-source, distributed graph database designed for storing, querying, and analyzing highly connected data at scale. It was founded in 2018 by engineers from Alibaba, Tencent, and Huawei and is headquartered in Beijing, China.
What are the main use cases for NebulaGraph?
NebulaGraph supports real-time fraud detection, knowledge graphs, recommendation engines, and supply chain optimization. It is used by financial services, e-commerce, telecom, healthcare, and logistics companies to analyze complex relationships in large datasets.
How does NebulaGraph handle scaling?
NebulaGraph uses a shared-nothing distributed architecture that enables horizontal scaling. This allows it to handle billions of nodes and edges while maintaining millisecond query latency, making it suitable for large-scale graph analytics workloads.
Who are some notable customers of NebulaGraph?
Notable customers include Tencent, JD.com, Xiaomi, Meituan, and China Merchants Bank. As of 2025, NebulaGraph claims over 500 enterprise customers and a community of over 10,000 developers.
What funding has NebulaGraph raised?
NebulaGraph has raised a total of $100 million in funding, including an $80 million Series B round in 2022 led by Sequoia Capital China and GSR Ventures. The company reported $15 million in annual recurring revenue in 2024.
What are the risks of using NebulaGraph?
NebulaGraph faces risks from heavy revenue concentration in China (70% of ARR), exposing it to regulatory changes and US-China tech decoupling. It also competes with well-funded rivals like Neo4j, TigerGraph, and Amazon Neptune.
Sources
- techcrunch.com — Company origin, founding team background, Series B funding ($80M), and early customer traction
- www.nebula-graph.io — Product description, use cases (fraud detection, knowledge graphs, recommendations), and partner logos
- techcrunch.com — Context on global VC funding environment in Q1 2026, though NebulaGraph not mentioned directly
- investors.planet.com — Financial reporting example (Planet Labs) – used to verify revenue disclosure format, not NebulaGraph-specific