The big difference here is that Runa Capital is a venture capital firm, and they already invested in MariaDB 8 years ago. To be honest I don't really understand how this acquisition makes sense in that context.
Founder's investment to start bootstrapped is often opportunity cost of time (years of work instead of earning salary). Maybe some cash invested too.
Or with VC, after years of work a founder's biggest asset is the common shares that are worth $0 if company folds.
Companies not run by shareholders but employees are often unremarkable but do well in long term. From time to time family owned companies choose that path.
Would you also throw in your savings next quarter to pay for the new losses? And the next quarter? And after that?
Paying $30M today isn’t enough when the business is making heavy losses and nearly out of money. You need to have a plan to either raise a lot more money very soon, cut costs, or probably both. Employees aren’t well positioned to do either.