Assaf Rappaport, co-founder and CEO of cloud security startup Wiz, said turning down Google's $23 billion offer was "the hardest decision ever." Rappaport justified the decision as follows: "Cloud security is the future, and there is a huge opportunity to reach a market value of $100 billion." He emphasized that the decision was correct and expressed his belief that Wiz can become a leader in cloud security.
This decision was not easy for the company's investors and employees, but Rappaport and the co-founders took this step together. During his speech at the TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 conference, Rappaport noted that in a company with healthy investor relations, the decision is always made by the founders.
Wiz was founded 4 years ago by Israeli ex-military officers and had a valuation of $12 billion at the time. After rejecting an offer from Google's parent company, Alphabet, the startup received $1 billion in investment led by investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital and Thrive Capital, calling itself "the world's largest cybersecurity unicorn." The company recently reached $500 million in annual revenue and aims to increase that number to $1 billion by 2025.
Rappaport also said Wiz bought two startups last year, Gem and Rafft, but the company generally prefers a risk-averse strategy.
