As major tech companies like Microsoft and Apple face increasing antitrust scrutiny from the Biden administration, Google is reportedly on the verge of making a significant acquisition.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Google is in talks to buy cybersecurity startup Wiz for approximately $23 billion. If finalized, this would be Google’s largest acquisition to date. However, sources indicate that the discussions could still fall through.
This potential acquisition would nearly double the size of Google’s previous largest purchase. Here are the details on Wiz and its rapid rise.
Wiz, based in New York, is a cloud security firm that aids companies in identifying and mitigating risks in their cloud infrastructure. The company was founded in 2020 by CEO Assaf Rappaport, along with Yinon Costica, Roy Reznik, and Ami Luttwak.
In May, Wiz announced it had raised $1 billion in a funding round with contributions from Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, and several other Silicon Valley investors. This brought Wiz’s valuation to $12 billion and was seen as a step towards a potential initial public offering (IPO), with the company targeting $1 billion in revenue before a possible market debut.
Wiz claims to be the world’s fastest-growing startup, having reached $350 million in annual recurring revenue last year. The company serves more than 40% of the Fortune 100 companies.
In April, the four-year-old company also acquired startup Gem Security, another cloud security platform specializing in real-time detection and response to cloud infrastructure attacks.
If Google acquires Wiz, it would not be the first time the founders have sold a startup to a tech giant. In 2015, Rappaport, Luttwak, and Reznik sold their previous cloud security startup, Adallom, to Microsoft. They left that firm five years later to launch Wiz.