Cybersecurity unicorn Wiz eyes major expansion, public stock offering
US-Israeli cloud security firm seeks to add another 400 employees over the coming year, including in Israel, and sets a goal of reaching $1 billion in annual recurring revenue
Sharon Wrobel is a tech reporter for The Times of Israel.
US-Israeli cloud security unicorn Wiz on Monday announced a hiring plan, as the startup embarks on a revenue growth path and eyes a public stock offering.
Wiz said it is planning to add another 400 employees over the coming year, and increase its headcount in Israel, the US, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. Headquartered in New York, the Israeli-founded software startup employs 900 people, out of which at least 150 currently work in Israel.
Considered one of the fastest-growing software startups, Wiz said it has reached $350 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in 2023 in less than four years and had set itself a goal to get to $1 billion.
“The upcoming year we are eager to reach the future milestone of $1 billion as we look toward an IPO,” said Wix CEO Assaf Rappaport.
Wiz was co-founded in early 2020 by Rappaport, Yinon Costica, Ami Luttwak, and Roy Reznik, the same team that founded the firm Adallom, which was sold to Microsoft for $320 million in 2015. They also led Microsoft Azure’s Cloud Security Group.
The cybersecurity startup was most recently valued at a staggering $10 billion after raising $300 million at its latest private funding round in February 2023.
For its growth plan, Wiz said it hired Dali Rajic as president and chief operating officer to help the startup prepare for an IPO. Rajic, an industry veteran last served as chief operating officer and president of Nasdaq-listed cyber security firm Zscaler.
The firm did not detail how much it hoped to raise or where it might list its IPO.
Wiz was established just as the COVID-19 pandemic started gaining pace around the world, sending entire enterprises and workers online and spurring a huge migration wave to cloud-based servers.
To date, the software firm has raised $900 million from investors, including Sequoia Capital, Insight Partners, Blackstone, and Salesforce, and is also backed by private investors and entrepreneurs such as Bernard Arnault and Starbucks founder Howard Schultz. Its customers include Slack, Mars, BMW, Avery Dennison, Priceline, Cushman & Wakefield, DocuSign, Plaid, and Agoda.
