DolphinDB
DolphinDB provides a high-performance distributed time-series database with integrated real-time stream processing and a proprietary scripting language (Dlang), serving ~200 leading financial institutions and industrial enterprises including hedge funds, broker-dealers, banks, and manufacturers like BYD and CITIC Securities.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2016
- HeadquartersAllendale, United States
- Headcount101–250
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What DolphinDB does
DolphinDB develops a high-performance distributed time-series database with an integrated real-time stream processing engine and a proprietary scripting language (Dlang). The platform unifies time-series, OLAP, in-memory OLTP, vector, and text storage models on a single distributed architecture with PAX hybrid row-column storage and Raft-based replication. Core technical differentiators include 2000+ built-in functions spanning time-series analysis, statistical modeling, and quant finance; over 20 streaming engines supporting stateful computation, window aggregation, and CEP; and unified stream-batch processing that lets a single factor expression run identically across research and production. Sub-products extend the core platform: Swordfish delivers single-digit microsecond embedded latency for trading and risk control; Shark provides GPU-accelerated factor mining; Starfish offers a low-code quant research platform; Octopus handles complex event processing; and Orca serves as an enterprise-grade real-time analytics platform.
The company monetizes through subscription and perpetual licensing of the database and sub-products, enterprise support services, and cloud marketplace subscriptions via AWS Marketplace and Alibaba Cloud Marketplace. GTM combines enterprise direct sales targeting financial institutions and industrial enterprises with a product-led growth funnel through a free Community Edition (up to 2 nodes, perpetual license) that seeds developer adoption. Distribution spans direct sales, cloud marketplaces, academic partnerships (Cerulean Campus Program across 20+ universities), and ecosystem alliances with NVIDIA, ICE, Altair Panopticon, Bloomberg, Refinitiv, and Apache Airflow. The company is privately held, founded in 2016 (per detailed corporate history), headquartered in Hangzhou, China, and reports ~200 leading enterprise customers globally spanning hedge funds, broker-dealers, mutual funds, commercial banks (CITIC Securities, Higgs Asset, CLSA, Bank of East Asia, ICE, LSEG, GF Securities, DeepFin Research) and industrial enterprises (BYD, Yangtze Power, Foxconn, BOE, Buhler, Skechers, Inovance). No revenue, funding, or valuation figures have been publicly disclosed.
DolphinDB firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- DolphinDB
- Legal name
- DolphinDB, Inc.
- Website
- https://dolphindb.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2016
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 101–250 employees
- Short description
- DolphinDB provides a high-performance distributed time-series database with integrated real-time stream processing and a proprietary scripting language (Dlang), serving ~200 leading financial institutions and industrial enterprises including hedge funds, broker-dealers, banks, and manufacturers like BYD and CITIC Securities.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
DolphinDB industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Time-Series Database Software
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (513210), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (5415)
- SIC
- Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Time-Series Databases (HDAEAAAF)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Columnar / Analytical Databases (OLAP) (HDAEAAAG), Multi-Model Databases (HDAEAAAL), Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS) Platforms (HDAEAAAN), In-Memory Databases (HDAEAAAD)
Keywords
Where DolphinDB is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Allendale
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
DolphinDB business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations
Revenue model
- Software Licensing: Perpetual and subscription licenses for DolphinDB database and associated products (Swordfish, Shark, Starfish, Octopus, Orca). Community Edition available free with limitations; Enterprise Trial for production evaluation.
- Enterprise Support and Services: Expert technical support for Enterprise Trial customers. Professional services likely offered for implementation and customization.
- Cloud Marketplace Subscriptions: DolphinDB MGR (automated cluster management) available via AWS Marketplace and Alibaba Cloud Marketplace for cloud-based deployment and management.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | One time/ perpetual license | Community Edition - Free tier for developers and small teams |
| Subscription | Annual | Enterprise Trial - Full-featured evaluation for production environments |
Go-to-market motion4 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels12 records
DolphinDB product offering
Product offeringCore offering
DolphinDB is a high-performance distributed time-series database and real-time computing platform that unifies data storage, stream processing, and analytics for financial institutions and industrial enterprises. The platform combines a multi-model storage engine (TSDB, OLAP, In-Memory OLTP, vector, text) with a vectorized scripting language (Dlang), 2000+ built-in functions, and 20+ streaming engines to deliver millisecond-to-microsecond latency on trillion-scale datasets. Its product portfolio includes specialized engines for embedded low-latency compute (Swordfish), GPU acceleration (Shark), quant research (Starfish), complex event processing (Octopus), enterprise real-time analytics (Orca), and AI assistants (DolphinMind, Starfish AI).
Product overview
DolphinDB is a real-time platform for analytics and stream processing powered by a high-performance time-series database. The core DolphinDB platform integrates storage, analytics, and stream computing on a single platform with a multi-model storage engine supporting TSDB, OLAP, vector, and text data models. The product portfolio includes the core DolphinDB Time-Series Database & Real-Time Computing Platform, specialized engines (Swordfish for embedded/low-latency, Shark for GPU-accelerated computing, Starfish for quant research, Octopus for complex event processing, Orca for enterprise real-time analytics), and AI-powered tools (DolphinMind RAG assistant, Starfish AI for factor development). Additional tools include the DolphinDB GUI, VSCode Extension, VectorDB, and TextDB. The architecture supports 2000+ built-in functions, over 20 streaming engines, and unified stream-batch processing with millisecond to microsecond latency.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Starfish: A unified platform for the complete quant research cycle from data management and factor development to strategy backtesting, powered by advanced visual analytics.
- Swordfish
- Shark
- Octopus
- Orca
- DolphinMind
Products and services
- DolphinDB Time-Series Database & Real-Time Computing Platform The all-in-one high-performance distributed time-series database and real-time computing platform for large-scale data storage, real-time analytics, and complex computation across finance, energy, power, transportation, and industrial manufacturing. Features columnar storage with vectorized execution, unified stream and batch processing, 2000+ built-in functions, multi-paradigm programming, Raft-based high availability, and native distributed architecture with horizontal scaling.
- DolphinDB Community Edition Free perpetual-license version of the DolphinDB database limited to 2 nodes, 2 CPU cores, and 8 GB RAM per node. Provides full DolphinDB functionality for evaluation, development, and non-production use by developers and small teams, serving as a product-led-growth funnel to enterprise adoption.
- Swordfish Embedded version of the DolphinDB database presented as a dynamic library, encapsulating DolphinDB's core computational capabilities including over 1500 built-in functions and a high-performance streaming framework. Delivers single-record computations in single-digit microseconds for tick-level factors and in-path risk checks, eliminating network round-trips for trading and risk control scenarios.
- Shark GPU version of DolphinDB providing rich GPU computing support with a built-in genetic algorithm framework (GPLearn) and GPU operator library. Shark GPLearn uses symbolic regression for automatic Alpha expression generation with GPU acceleration, compressing the generate-screen-backtest iteration cycle and achieving up to 10x performance improvements for factor mining and calculation.
- Starfish Unified visual analytics platform streamlining the complete quant research cycle from data management and factor development to strategy backtesting. Built for institutional teams with a low-code interface and enterprise-grade security. Powers factor research, evaluation, and strategy backtesting.
- Starfish AI Intelligent research and factor development platform bringing AI into every stage of quantitative research. Features interactive factor research with natural language queries, research report analysis with factor extraction and replication, and self-improving backtests. Integrates Gemini 3 to achieve a 97% factor code pass rate for Dlang script generation.
- Octopus Complex event processing engine that extracts insights and detects patterns across large-scale real-time data streams. Enables instant decisions in financial trade surveillance, supply chain optimization, IoT, and security monitoring through event distribution, matching, and callback function execution.
- Orca Enterprise Real-Time Computing Platform Enterprise-grade real-time computing platform providing end-to-end high-performance real-time analytics for sophisticated institutional use cases. Features unified multi-modal data processing, industry-specific data models, enterprise-grade high availability, and cross-region collaboration.
- DolphinMind RAG-powered enterprise AI assistant built on DolphinDB's vector, text, and computing engine, providing instant guidance and code generation. Features hybrid retrieval combining semantic and lexical search, multi-source retrieval, and reranking architecture for zero-hallucination Q&A.
- DolphinDB Multi-Asset Management Platform Unified multi-asset solution covering bonds, futures, forwards, swaps, and options. Standardizes all assets into computable objects for real-time position monitoring, risk calculation, and full-lifecycle portfolio management for mutual funds and other multi-asset managers.
- DolphinDB Market Data Management Market data ingestion platform supporting direct exchange feeds, institutional market data services, ICE Consolidated Feed, Refinitiv, and Bloomberg. Handles bulk import of historical data in CSV, HDF5, and Parquet formats with distributed time-series storage, columnar storage with 4:1-10:1 compression, and millisecond-level slice access.
- DolphinDB Backtesting Framework Integrated event-driven engine combining data replay, simulated matching, and backtesting. Built on a C++ core covering equities, options, futures, interbank bonds, and digital assets. Delivers up to tens of times the performance of Python-based frameworks at full-market mid-to-high frequency scale.
- DolphinDB GUI Easy-to-navigate graphical interface for querying, aggregating, analyzing, and checking data visually. Includes script and module management capabilities for developers and analysts working with the DolphinDB platform.
- DolphinDB VSCode Extension Visual Studio Code extension enabling users to write and execute DolphinDB scripts directly in VS Code. Features documentation widget with code completion, multi-user connections, version control, and debugging support for developers integrating DolphinDB into existing toolchains.
Quantifiable outcome
- 100x+ faster queries and computation vs traditional solutions
- +10 more outcomes
Companies that use DolphinDB
Customer profileNamed customers15 records
Segments9 records
Ideal customer profiles7 records
DolphinDB technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration8 records
AI capability10 records
Feature12 records
DolphinDB partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and strategic.
- Alibaba CloudcoreDolphinDB officially available on Alibaba Cloud Marketplace, enabling China region customers to discover and deploy the service.
- DatagostrategicDolphinDB co-hosted Quant Talk Hong Kong 2025 with Datago, bringing together professionals from leading financial institutions, tech firms, and academic research teams to explore advancements in quantitative investing and financial technology.
- Altair PanopticoncoreDolphinDB completed data integration with Altair Panopticon streaming analytics platform for data visualization. DolphinDB's high-throughput, low-latency streaming framework integrates with Panopticon's real-time data visualization capabilities, enabling users to access and analyze real-time stream data, cumulative intraday data, and historical data with visual output. Users can connect to data sources, design auto-refreshing interactive dashboards, and publish for trading, analytics, and monitoring personnel within minutes.
- NVIDIA Inception ProgramcoreDolphinDB joined NVIDIA Inception program, receiving benefits including product discounts, technical assistance, marketing promotion, fundraising facilitation, business referrals, GPU cloud resource discounts, deep learning training, and access to exclusive NVIDIA Inception events. The partnership enhances DolphinDB's capacity to provide customers with GPU-accelerated solutions for storage, analytics, and real-time calculation of vast structured data.
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)coreDolphinDB MGR (automated Kubernetes cluster management) launched on AWS Marketplace overseas. Users can discover and subscribe to the service, with DolphinDB MGR providing full lifecycle management including deployment, upgrades, scaling, and configuration changes on Amazon EKS clusters. Supports seamless migration of DolphinDB MGR services to Amazon EKS.
- Intercontinental Exchange (ICE)coreDolphinDB and ICE agreed to offer access to the ICE Consolidated Feed and its historical tick data services on DolphinDB's high-performance time series database. The ICE Consolidated Feed provides real-time and intra-day data from over 600 markets and third-party data sources. This integration provides DolphinDB clients an efficient workflow to access ICE's market data for faster deployment of trading strategy research, testing, and executions.
Scale indicators8 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights6 records
DolphinDB competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Kx Systems (kdb+): Kdb+ is the entrenched time-series database standard for capital markets, used across Tier 1 sell-side firms, exchanges and hedge funds. DolphinDB competes head-on with kdb+ in the same quant/financial time-series workload with comparable microsecond latency claims but at a more modern, unified stack.
- InfluxDB (InfluxData): InfluxDB is the leading pure-play open-source time-series database (ranked #1 on DB-Engines TSDB), serving IoT, monitoring, and increasingly financial analytics workloads. DolphinDB and InfluxDB compete for the same time-series workloads with different emphases on quant/finance vs. general IoT/monitoring.
- TimescaleDB: TimescaleDB is a PostgreSQL-based time-series extension positioned as a developer-friendly production time-series database. It competes with DolphinDB in industrial IoT and financial monitoring scenarios where SQL-familiar teams prefer a Postgres-native option.
- ClickHouse: ClickHouse is a high-performance columnar OLAP database increasingly used for real-time analytics and time-series workloads. Its columnar architecture, vectorized execution and growing adoption in trading/observability use cases overlap directly with DolphinDB's performance-led positioning.
- OneTick (OneMarketData): OneTick is a purpose-built tick-data analytics platform for capital markets, offering an integrated time-series database, CEP, and historical analytics for trading and compliance. It competes with DolphinDB's Orca/Octopus stack in regulated financial time-series use cases.
- Apache Druid (Imply): Apache Druid is a real-time analytics database for high-concurrency OLAP on event/streaming data. Druid and DolphinDB overlap in stream-batch unification, sub-second analytics, and serving event-driven dashboards and monitoring for enterprises.
Emerging players
- QuestDB: QuestDB is an open-source time-series database optimized for high-throughput ingestion and SQL queries on time-series data. It targets similar financial and IoT workloads with a lighter deployment footprint, attracting price-sensitive teams evaluating DolphinDB.
- StarRocks: StarRocks is a real-time OLAP database (formerly Doris) optimized for sub-second analytics on large-scale data, including time-series and event data. Its MPP architecture and millisecond-latency claims overlap with DolphinDB's OLAP engine in analytics-adjacent workloads.
Broad incumbents
- Snowflake: Snowflake is a cloud data platform that increasingly markets native time-series, streaming and AI capabilities to financial-services buyers. While not a focused TSDB, its scale, marketplace and Cortex AI offerings compete for budget that could otherwise be allocated to DolphinDB.
- Databricks: Databricks is a unified lakehouse platform with Delta Lake, Photon engine and Databricks SQL adding analytics on time-series and streaming data. Its Mosaic AI stack and broad enterprise footprint make it an adjacent competitor for AI-ready data infrastructure workloads.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
DolphinDB social profiles
Digital presenceDolphinDB financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
DolphinDB leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles4 records
DolphinDB funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
DolphinDB M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about DolphinDB
What does DolphinDB do?
DolphinDB is a high-performance distributed time-series database and real-time computing platform that unifies data storage, stream processing, and analytics for financial institutions and industrial enterprises. The platform combines a multi-model storage engine (TSDB, OLAP, In-Memory OLTP, vector, text) with a vectorized scripting language (Dlang), 2000+ built-in functions, and 20+ streaming engines to deliver millisecond-to-microsecond latency on trillion-scale datasets. Its product portfolio includes specialized engines for embedded low-latency compute (Swordfish), GPU acceleration (Shark), quant research (Starfish), complex event processing (Octopus), enterprise real-time analytics (Orca), and AI assistants (DolphinMind, Starfish AI).
Is DolphinDB a public or private company?
DolphinDB is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was DolphinDB founded?
DolphinDB was founded in 2016. It employs 101 to 250 people.
Where is DolphinDB based?
DolphinDB is headquartered in Allendale, United States, in the North America region.
How does DolphinDB make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Software Licensing is the primary driver. The others are enterprise Support and Services and cloud Marketplace Subscriptions.
Who are DolphinDB's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Kx Systems (kdb+), InfluxDB (InfluxData), TimescaleDB, ClickHouse, OneTick (OneMarketData) and Apache Druid (Imply). Emerging players are QuestDB and StarRocks. Broad incumbents are Snowflake and Databricks.
Does DolphinDB have an API?
Yes. DolphinDB provides APIs for Python, C++, Java, and more for data access, querying, streaming, and analytics. The platform supports native MCP (Model Context Protocol) for connecting LLMs directly to enterprise data, enabling AI agents to query databases, compute factors, and subscribe to real-time market data. Python API supports streaming subscription. Rich APIs and plugins connect upstream and downstream data ecosystems. Developer documentation is at docs.dolphindb.com/en.
What industry is DolphinDB in?
DolphinDB's product category is Time-Series Database Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAEAAAF, Time-Series Databases, with a secondary code of HDAEAAAG, Columnar / Analytical Databases (OLAP). Its NAICS code is 513210 and its SIC code is 7370.