Israeli cloud cybersecurity company Wiz today announced the completion of a $300 million Series D financing round at a company valuation of $10 billion.
At the same time, Wiz cofounder and CEO Assaf Rappaport, who has been one of the most active leaders in the protests against the government's judicial reform plans, announced that, "To our regret, due to the judicial revolution, the money we have raised will not enter Israel."
The latest financing round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and existing investors Greenoaks Capital Partners and Index Ventures. Also participating were existing investors Sequoia, Insight Partners, and Gil Ra'anan's Cyberstarts. Private investors in the company include the world's wealthiest individual Bernard Arnault, and Starbucks founder Howard Schultz.
Rappaport said, "Our big concern for Israeli high-tech is not only the money leaving Israel but also the large amount of money that won't enter Israel. I hear from everywhere the voices of concerned investors, of entrepreneurs who are secretly taking money out of the country, and of employees who fear for their future in Israel."
He added, "Wiz has succeeded so far thanks to an amazing ecosystem that exists in Israel, but it is currently facing existential danger. I believe and hope that the pained voices coming from all parts of the people will result in the government focusing on security events, stopping the legislative measures, and striving for a true compromise that is acceptable to all the parties."
Wiz allows security and development teams to identify, prioritize and prevent cloud risks. The technology scans the cloud environment by interfacing with an API, while an in-depth analysis of the resources in the cloud is performed, including the network structure, access permissions and configuration errors that could provide a breach for attackers. The platform also scans the application and software layer and identifies weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Wiz combines all the findings into one clear picture of the most essential risks in the cloud by calculating hundreds of different risks and the connections between them.
Wiz was founded in March 2020 by Rappaport, CTO Ami Luttwak, VP Product Yinon Costica and VP R&D Roy Reznik - the same team that founded Adallom, which was sold to Microsoft for $320 million in 2015, and led Microsoft's Cloud Security Group. In its most recent financing round in October 2021, Wiz raised $250 million at a company valuation of $6 billion.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on February 27, 2023.
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