Cyber Startup Wiz Raises Funds at $6 Billion Valuation
(Bloomberg) -- Cloud security startup Wiz more than tripled its valuation to $6 billion in its latest funding round, Chief Executive Officer Assaf Rappaport said in an interview.
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The Tel Aviv-based company raised $250 million from investors such as Insight Partners and Greenoaks Capital, Rappaport said. Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures and Salesforce Ventures also participated.
Wiz was valued at $1.8 billion when it raised money five months ago.
Founded in January 2020, the company has now attracted $600 million from investors looking to profit from the booming demand in cloud security services. A widespread shift to remote work accelerated the adoption of cloud networks, leaving companies with the “even bigger challenge” of securing them, said Steve Ward, who was the chief information security officer at Home Depot Inc. before becoming a managing director at Insight.
Global cloud management and security spending is forecast to jump to $18 billion next year, a 26% increase from 2020, according to a Gartner Inc. report in April.
Wiz has “tens of millions” of dollars in revenue, Rappaport said, declining to elaborate further. The company plans to add dozens of employees to its workforce of 180 in Tel Aviv and across the U.S. and Europe.
“We are scaling every part of the company,” Rappaport said.
Wiz’s software lets clients including Blackstone Inc. and DocuSign Inc. find potential risks related to their use of platforms such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.
(Updates with CEO’s comment in sixth paragraph)
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